Located on Woodland Walk, in the Lost Gardens of Heligan, is an amazing sculpture of a sleeping goddess entitled ‘Mud Maid’. The incredible larger-than-life sculpture even has grass and moss growing atop it.

Heligan was a sprawling thousand-acre estate in the UK (Pentewan, St. Austell, Cornwall to be exact), and was originally bought by the Tremaynes in the 16th century. After decades of neglect in the 1900s it became decayed and overgrown until an ambitious restoration project in 1996 brought the gardens back to life. They are now one of the most popular botanical gardens in the UK.

The restoration, which was the subject of a six part Channel 4 television series in 1996, proved to be an outstanding success, not only revitalising the gardens but also the local economy around Heligan by providing employment. The gardens are now leased by a company owned by their restorers, who continue to cultivate them and operate them as a visitor attraction. [Source]

Lee Jae-Hyo is a famous Korean artist and sculptor. Born in 1965 in Hapchen, Korea, he received his BFA in Plastic Arts from Hong-ik University. Lee works primarily with wood, steel, stone and nails, creating incredible organic-feeling sculptures with textures you just want to touch.

In the mind-blowing series of wooden sculptures below, Lee creates giant spheres that are perfectly round and sanded. The process is meticulous and you can find a time-lapse view of his studio as he and his team of assistants create these larger than life globes on interlocking pieces of wood. The end-result are these imposing wooden spheres, with different cuts and angles of wood forming the outer layer.

Be sure to check out Lee’s official site for more astounding works of art. Be warned, you easily can get lost in his fascinating work!
 
www.leeart.name

Using a variety of 3D geometric shapes such as prisms, pyramids, cylinders, spheres and cones; artist Calvin Seibert creates wonderful sand sculptures that are not quite ‘castles’ but much more than just randomly placed building blocks.

On Flickr, you can find an entire 66-picture gallery of Calvin’s artwork which have all been washed away by the sea. Luckily for us, Calvin immortalized his pieces through photography so we can all enjoy his fantastic creations!

[Colossal via Reddit]

 
Makaon is a Japanese artist that specializes in making sculptures using only aluminum cans. You’ll undoubtedly recognize many of the characters from comics, cartoons and video games. First spotted on Reddit, a commentor suggests that the artist likely uses papercraft templates and aluminum happens to be his medium of choice. Regardless, the results are outstanding and there are many more creations available on at the following: Makaon’s gallery, Makaon’s blog, Makaon’s step-by-step gallery

Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, Henrique Oliveira is an award-winning artist that has exhibited his work around the world. Born in 1973, Oliveira received his BFA and Masters in Visual Poetics from the University of São Paulo.

While Henrique is also well-known for his paintings, this post focuses on his incredible wooden sculptures and installations. Using a combination of reclaimed plywood, fencing and PVC, Oliveira creates organic wooden sculptures that have a movement and flow that makes them feel liquid.

Oliveira’s installations are massive, often overtaking entire rooms and spaces. He first forms his shapes with PVC and then meticulously wraps it in layers of plywood, stripping away layers to reveal different colours of wood.

Be sure to visit Henrique’s official site to see his entire portfolio of work including his paintings and smaller-scale sculptures.

This beautiful sculpture entitled, Dreaming of the Tiger, is located in Hupao Spring (Tiger Spring) in Hangzhou, China. Located in the mountains between West Lake and Qiantang River, Hupao can be found at the foot of Daci Hill about 5km southwest of Hangzhou. The spring is well known in China for its water quality and visitors travel there to taste the Longjing tea made from the water of Hupao Spring.

The popularity of the spring has led to the expansion of the surrounding area which includes a forest park with streams, trees, pagodas and pavilions. Memorials and other cultural buildings and sculptures can also be found on the premises. For more travel information visit Tour-Beijing and China Travel Guide.

Cornelia Konrads is an artist from Wuppertal, Germany. She is well-known for her land art and site-specific art installations and has been freelancing since 1998. Konrads has been commissioned for several permanent and temporary public artworks as well as for numerous private collections, sculpture parks and gardens.

On her site you can find an extensive collection of her amazing sculptural work. In the examples below, we focus on Konrads outdoor artwork that seems to defy gravity and float in the air. Upon close inspection you can see wires suspending the artwork but from afar, the pieces are truly mystical, especially given their beautiful surroundings.

[via Colossal]

In this beautiful capture, we see the iconic Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at sunset. The photograph was taken from Icarai beach using a 300mm lens. Photographer Guillermo Rico waited for the exact moment the sun set behind the mountain.

Cristo Redentor (Eng: Christ the Redeemer) is a statue of Jesus of Nazareth in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world and the 5th largest statue of Jesus in the world. It is 39.6 metres (130 ft) tall, including its 9.5 metres (31 ft) pedestal, and 30 metres (98 ft) wide. It weighs 635 tonnes (625 long,700 short tons), and is located at the peak of the 700-metre (2,300 ft) Corcovado mountain in the Tijuca Forest National Park overlooking the city. The iconic statue is made of reinforced concrete and soapstone, and was constructed between 1922 and 1931.

Sergei Bobkov is a talented Russian artist that uses wood chips to create intricate and realistic looking animal sculptures. The first step in the process is to carefully understand the anatomy of a creature. The next step is to create his own wood chips. To do this he shaves 100-150 chips from a solid stick of cedar. He then soaks the fragments in water for several days before beginning to carve. Each sculpture can take up to six months to complete.

[via My Modern Met, MSN Now, English Russia]

Michael Grab is an artist that has been ‘rock balancing‘ since 2008. Much of his recent work has been done around the Boulder, Colorado area. Grab finds the process both spiritual and therapeutic. On his site gravityglue.com, Grab explains:

“The most fundamental element of balancing in a physical sense is finding some kind of ‘tripod’ for the rock to stand on. Every rock is covered in a variety of tiny to large indentations that can act as a tripod for the rock to stand upright, or in most orientations you can think of with other rocks. By paying close attention to the feeling of the rocks, you will start to feel even the smallest clicks as the notches of the rocks in contact are moving over one another.
 
Parallel to the physical element of finding tripods, the most fundamental non-physical element is harder to explain through words. In a nutshell, I am referring to meditation, or finding a zero point or silence within yourself. Some balances can apply significant pressure on your mind and your patience. The challenge is overcoming any doubt that may arise.”

On gravityglue you will find an extensive gallery of his work along with videos, an in-depth interview and an active blog about his thoughts that accompany his work.

[via Colossal]

The Singing Ringing Tree is a musical sculpture standing in the wind on a hill (Crown Point) overlooking Burnley, UK. From far and wide, the tree’s profile is visible on the horizon, appearing and disappearing in the mist. The tree is constructed of stacked pipes of varying lengths, orientated to lean into the directions of the prevailing wind. As the wind passes through the different lengths of pipe, it plays different chords. Each time you sit under the tree, looking out through the wind, you will hear a different song (check out the embedded video below).

Designed by architecture firm Tonkin Liu, it was completed in December of 2006. It is one of a series of four ‘Panopticons’ (meaning a structure, space or device providing a comprehensive or panoramic view) artworks located across Pennine Lancashire. The Panopticons are a unique series of 21st century landmarks, designed to attract visitors into the countryside to enjoy the stunning landscapes and wealth of attractions on offer in Pennine Lancashire. Each Panopticon is situated on a high point site commanding spectacular views, and are all within easy reach of the M65 motorway.

You can learn more about the ‘Panopticons’ here. You can find directions to the Singing Ringing Tree here.

Marta Klonowska is a Polish artist from Warsaw. Her passion is sculpture and she creates installations of her amazing shattered glass animal sculptures, typically placing them in front of historical paintings from masters like Rubens and d’Agar. While the source paintings had the animals in secondary roles, Klonowska makes them the focal point. As she explains to European Glass Context:

“Animals are difficult to understand and it is difficult to communicate with them. My glass animals open therefore a new reality, which is different from ours. The sitters in the painting, the animals and the audience of my art perform in a kind of theatrical stage, where the different levels become indistinct. This clash of realities should make us think about the uncertainties of life.”

You can find more of her stunning work at the lorch+seidel contemporary gallery.

[via Colossal]

According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, 2013 marks the year of the snake and began on February 10th. In Singapore, photographer Choo Yut Shing took this fantastic overheard capture of a snake lantern sculpture made from 850 yellow sky lanterns.

The snake stretches about 300 meters (984.5 ft) from the junction of Upper Cross Street and South Bridge Road to Sago Street in Singapore’s Chinatown district.

Ken To is an artist from the United States with a deep fascination for Bonsai trees. In this amazing series of miniature wire sculptures, Ken creates wire trees from continuous strands that flow from the tip of the roots to the end of the leaves and branches.

The ceramic pots used to hold each sculpture are made by Jim Barrett. Ken says each tree takes an average of three hours, with even the smallest trees using up about six yards of wire (5.48 meters).

Although completely sold out at the moment, Ken’s miniature Bonsai wire trees are for sale and can be found at rondei.com. He also does commission pieces and you can reach out to him on deviantART, where you will find an impressive gallery of all of his work.

[via My Modern Met]

James McNabb is a Philadelphia-based artist specializing in woodwork. Together with his wife Stephanie and dog Buster, they are McNabb & Co., a design studio dedicated to developing heirloom quality products. In McNabb’s latest project, entitled City Series, the sculptures depict the outsider’s perspective of the urban landscape. Made entirely of scrap wood, this work is an interpretation of making something out of nothing. Each piece is cut intuitively on a band saw. The result is a collection of architectural forms, each distinctly different from the next.

In addition to wood sculptures, McNabb & Co. also build contemporary furniture pieces and incredible etched wood designs using state of the art laser engraving technology. They have also recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for the continuation of the City Series. The crowd-funding project ends on March 17, 2013 and they have reached 72% of their $5,000 target.

Links to Mcnabb & Co.’s online profiles can be found in the links below.

Inspired by wooden wagon wheels, this piece references the pilgrimage many make from the countryside to the city, in search of fortune and fame. City Wheel is composed of wedge-shaped pieces of cherry, oak, ash, and maple. After a few preliminary drawings to determine the geometry of each piece, a template was made to assure each was made to the correct angle.
 
Next, McNabb put his headphones on, found a good rhythm to work to, and started cutting. He finds this work to be very relaxing and therapeutic, an escape from some of the hyper-technical aspects of woodworking. Each piece is intricately cut using a band saw, no two alike, a reference to the idea that cities are the land of endless possibility. [Source]

The journey from the suburbs to the city has a way of flipping your world upside down. This table shows several dynamic views of the skyline from extreme perspectives allowing viewers to see the urban landscape in ways they have never seen before. Direct lighting from above reveals amazing skyline shadows on the ground below the table. The squares of color and patterns provide a visual map of the city that lives below the surface.
 
Each block was intricately cut on a band saw and glued together into rows. Next, the rows were glued together. Finally each side of the table was joined. Four legs in each corner measure the same length, and when flipped over, act as legs for the table. The surface is sanded smooth, and showcases the random pattern caused by the various wood species in the table. [Source]

the epitome of the urban sprawl, this piece depicts a planet consumed by the city. A lathe turned wood sphere, entirely covered in abstracted urban architectural forms. Each piece was cut to shape on a band saw, and attached one by one to the sphere with wooden dowels and glue. McNabb used a sharp chisel to taper the bottom of each building, so that viewers can see down to the core of the sphere, what he considers “street view”. [Source]

Japanese artist Takahiro Iwasaki carved this amazing miniature landscape into a roll of duct tape. Born in 1975, Iwasaki works and lives in Hiroshima, Japan. He makes miniature sculptures from everyday items like tape, thread and wire. You can find more images of his highly intricate work here, here and here.

Hungarian artist and deviantART user cerkahegyzo carves intricate miniature sculptures from a single lead pencil (with the exception of #5 & #15, not sure how he did those!). The artist says it’s a hobby and form of relaxation for him and that he carves them in his free time. During the day he works as a professional tool-maker in Hungary.

Cerkahegyzo says he started carving after coming across the highly detailed sculptures of artist Dalton Ghetti who also uses lead pencils as his preferred medium. Tools used include: needles, razor blades, sandpaper, files, polishing stones and all varieties of pencils (e.g., HB, B, 2B, 4B).

Below is a small collection of the artist’s unbelievable artwork. Be sure to check out his deviantART profile to see his entire portfolio.

[via minngirl, SoundGuyJake]

Li Hongbo is a Chinese artist currently living and working in Beijing. Born in 1974 in Siping City, Jilin, China, Li has always had a deep fascination with paper and it’s properties. “You can never predict what it will become in the end,” Li says of paper.

In a recent solo exhibition entitled, Pure White Paper, at the Dominik Mersch Gallery, Li displayed dozens of his sculptures, meticulously crafted from thousands of individual sheets of paper, glued together to create a a kind of ‘honeycomb’ structure that makes the sculptures entirely malleable and flexible.

Be sure to check out the animated gifs and videos below to see these transformative works in action. For more still imagery, you can find a larger gallery at the Dominik Mersch website.

[via Colossal]

Augusto Esquivel is an artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Represented by the Now Contemporary Art Gallery in Miami, Augusto’s work involves the use of thousands of carefully place, multi-coloured sewing buttons. On his website he describes his process:

“I am often obsessed with comparisons of reality and potential and the balance between them, in art: the idea of chaos in perfect order: an object seemingly solid to the eye can also be fragile and inconsistent to the touch; a common object used to create a piece of art becomes transformed into something complicated and intriguing.
 
I realize how insignificant and small a simple sewing button can be as it lays in my grandmother’s sewing box, but at the same time how unique and precious it can become as part of a work of art. Like an atom in a molecule, each button serves and shapes the whole. I hold the button to my ear and it whispers to me, ‘I want to be…’”

Below you will find a small sample of Esquivel’s wonderful artwork. Sprinkled throughout you will find some of Esquivel’s thoughts from a great interview he did with Vineri Handmade. For more, be sure to check out his gallery on his personal website and Now Contemporary Art.

[via Fubiz]

“Art was always present in my life. I didn’t feel any revelation or ‘natural’ call I think that is kind of a myth! You either make the decision to do art,or you don’t, and then you act accordingly. You have an urge to create, to paint, to sing, to act. I feel far from being a ‘call’. It is also a lot of hard work! Like any other job.”
 
[Source: Vineri Handmade - Interview with Augusto Esquivel]

“I see an object that catches my attention, like a piano, for example and I do research on it. The dimensions, colors, number of black and white keys, different types. Then I create the acrylic where the strings are going to be hanged, then I drill the holes. Then I select the buttons, type and quantity (for the Piano I used 60 pounds of sewing buttons). Then I paint the buttons. To do that I have to display them very carefully one next to the other and then I use spray paint. After they dry I have to turn them over one by one and paint the other side. Then I thread them with monofilament and hang them. Is only then that I have to position every button in the right place to sculpt the object. It is a ridiculous amount of time! But I enjoy every minute of it!”
 
[Source: Vineri Handmade - Interview with Augusto Esquivel]

Diet Wiegman is a Dutch artist that uses a combination of sculpture and light to create fascinating shadow art projected onto walls. Born in 1944, he began experimenting with light sculptures in the 1980s, inspiring a generation of artists after him to also explore the art style (e.g., Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Kumi Yamashita).

For more artwork by Wiegman, be sure to check out his official site at dietwiegman.tumblr.com/ where you will find all of his light sculptures as well as drawings, paintings, photographs, ceramics and more.

[Alafoto via TruthSeerum]