Simon Beck : The Inventor Of Snow Art
Have you heard of Simon Beck? This British artist has made immaculate and glittering powder snow the backdrop for his works. We invite you to discover the ephemeral and impressive works of the inventor of snow art.
An orienteering enthusiast
Simon Beck is an engineering geographer with a degree from Oxford University. He worked as a cartographer before devoting himself fully to his art.
Before creating works in the snow, he was passioned in orienteering and outdoor sports activities.
It was at the end of a day of skiing in December 2004 that he had the idea to draw a star on the small frozen lake in front of his home. Seen from the nearby chairlift, the result is impressive: it is the beginning of snow art!
Lake Marlou located near his apartment in Les Arcs 2000 is still his favorite playground today.
An artistic and sporting challenge
Simon Beck is an artist truly unlike any other: where others use paint or different materials to create works, he has freshly fallen snow as his raw material.
He uses his knowledge as a cartographer and a pair of snowshoes to transpose beautiful patterns onto the snow.
His snow artist equipment is limited to a pair of snowshoes, sticks, a compass and a measuring rope.
Each of his works is a sporting challenge because it must be completed in a limited amount of time. He often has to walk all day on snowshoes to create these spectacular patterns in the powder and immortalize them in photographs.
Impressive creations
Simon Beck walks on average for 5 to 9 hours for each of his sensational works in the snow. It must be said that his works are usually the size of 3 soccer fields!
The patterns he creates can be geometric shapes, which sometimes appear in 3D when viewed from above.
For example, he drew on the snow Koch's snowflake, a fractal cut invented by Swedish mathematician Helge Von Koch in 1904, and the Sierpinski triangle (a fractal object made from an equilateral triangle).
These snow art creations are all the more impressive because the artist has no room for error. He cannot erase his tracks or go back. The preparation stage of the motif is therefore essential and must be scrupulously respected.
Ephemeral works
Like Land Art, snow art uses nature as its medium. It is therefore by definition an ephemeral art.
The lifespan of Simon Beck's works depends entirely on the weather. The latter is sometimes forced to redraw his designs as the snow falls or to leave some of his works unfinished because of fog that confuses his bearings or the arrival of new snowfall.
After creating his works in the powder, Simon immortalizes them with a digital camera so that he can share them on the Internet and social networks. Most of the time, he takes an aerial photo when the sun is low to highlight the pattern.
An environmental message
Through his ephemeral works in the snow, Simon Beck hopes to alert awareness to Global warming and the diminishing snow cover of the mountains in winter.
His artistic approach aims to raise awareness of the fragility of the environment.
Of course, the footprints of this tireless walker do not remain in the snow, but he hopes that his message will be much more lasting.
