DAY 1

26th July 2022

Caswell Bay, Gower

DYDD 1

26 Gorffennaf 2022

Bae Cas-welt, Gwyr

GWYL CERFLUNIAU TRAETH GWYR 2022

Scroll down to view the 2022 festival feature and link to the next festival day at the bottom of each page

Artists /Artistiaid:

SARA HOLDEN,

TINA MARIE CUNNINGHAM,

JENNY CHISHOLM

CLARE FERGUSON-WALKER

RHIANNON HOLDEN

Photographer / Ffotograffydd Prosiect:

Phil Holden

Our 18th annual beach sculpture festival started on it's tour at beautiful Caswell beach on the Gower Peninsula, part of the AONB, with its stunning coastline of beaches, ambience, unique charm and culture. A Blue Flag beach, Caswell Bay or Bae Cas-wellt (meaning straw fortress) is a golden sandy beach popular with families, holiday makers and surfers. Festival displays and flags were erected early in readiness for a first busy day of the Beach Sculpture Festival.

'Immersive, creative and fun!'

'We enjoy this every year!'

The festival was amazing! I like how it connects with both art and nature'

The adults and children alike were interested in the living environment as much as the making. Many were eager to come again on our other workshops during the festival week. .Mindfulness was mentioned a lot by people who thought that our festival was the essence of it.

'Excellent experienced and lovely artists to work with. Such a great experience for families and children to work collaboratively in the outdoors'

The Festival was an opportunity to see the materials on the beach in a different light, whether it's the colours of the stones or playing with contrast between seaweed and sand.

'Creative, educational and fun for children'

'The artist encouraged my children to use their imaginations and was very supportive of their ideas'

'So inspiring'

The skies were blue and the sun had already started to shine. People were already making their way down the beach to take advantage of the good weather the summer had brought.

A seal sculpture is carved from sand on the Caswell shores. The children enjoyed finding pebbles and small sticks for his facial features and creating different textures for its skin.They enjoyed working with their artist to create a really realistic looking seal that was much admired during the day, especially as several seals were spotted swimming in the sea.

A starfish was an ideal sculpture to create from the golden sand. Diifferent materials on the beach such as pebbles and shells were used to decorate this large scale Common Starfish sand sculpture. The pebbles the children gathered to use for decoration were placed around its limbs in outline.

'We found out about the life of starfish whilst creating our large scale one from sand - it was beautiful'

'The artists were lovely and were very good with the children. They talked about nature and explained everything'.

A lot of the participants, both child and adult expressed how nice it was to be smoothing the sand, they mentioned the calming effects of being involved in the different processes of making the sculptures. Having opportunities to talk and make space for open discussions about our environment can have a positive impact on all ages.

A beautiful Nautilus shell was made - the festival workshops were a great creative activity. It was wonderful to see people concentrating for extended periods of time, feeling really relaxed by the process.

'Absolutely delightful event'

The first day of the festival had been a success and the artists folded away the flags and banners ready to take to Oxwich Bay the next day.

To see page 2 of 2022 Festival at Oxwich Bay - click the link at the bottom of this page.
I weld tudalen 2 o 2022 Gwyl Traeth Bae Oxwich - cliciwch ar y ddolen ar waelod y dudalen hon.

'The festival encouraged interaction with the environment'

The children especially enjoyed collecting different materials to create the features of the seahorse.

Using the Long Snouted Seahorse found in UK waters as inspiration to create this sand and stone sculpture. The children were interested to find out that seahorses can grow to a maximum length of around 15 cm to 17 cm and live in shallow, inshore waters in the warmer months of the year amongst rocks, mud, seaweeds and seagrass which they cling to with their tails.

'The festival encouraged children to design. Its a really exciting event for them!'

'An engaging and fun family activity which will inspire us to make our own in the future. Lovely to see families engaged together'

An engagement with nature using natural materials and ideas.

'Festivals like this encourage young people to be creative and learn more about marine life and the environment'

As well enhancing people's creativity and well-being, our intention was to give a sense of place and awareness of different marine species that are dependent on human understanding and care, helping to protect and sustain them in both present and future times. This was definitely achieved today.