While we've seen amazing sand sketches before, like those by England-based specialist Tony Plant, and while we'll always be a fan of calligraphy, especially when it's blended with graffiti, we've never believed of placing the two art types together...until now. These days, we came upon the perform of Andrew van der Merwe, an experienced calligrapher, centered in Cape Town, South Africa, who also goes by the headline, "world's first beach calligrapher."
Beach calligraphy is an unique art type that includes chiselling characters into the sand using unique equipment and methods. Van der Merwe has designed his particular design over the last eight years.
As he declares :
"The work is usually very temporal, often lasting no more than an hour before it is taken by the wind or the tide. I carve the letters in the sand using various instruments and then photograph them with my Nikon D700. I leave no footprints and the tide leaves me with a clean slate."
"Most of the forms used here draw their inspiration from African writing systems, but in some instances, I have moved on from there and found myself playing with variations of a particular movement - pretty much like a musician might play with variations on a theme."
"I have 20 years experience as a calligrapher but the most difficult aspect of the work remains the calligraphy. Any calligrapher worth his or her salt will understand this. Even wordless writing must have a logic, a system of movement, a poetry."
Andrew Van Der Merwe Beach Calligraphy
Source : Andrew van der Merwe on Behance