DAY 3

24th July 2025

Port Eynon Bay, Gower

DYDD 3

24 Gorffennaf

Traeth Porth Einon, Gwyr

Artists /Artistiaid:

SARA HOLDEN,

TINA MARIE CUNNINGHAM,

JENNY CHISHOLM

Photographer / Ffotograffydd Prosiect:

Phil Holden

The 21st annual Beach Sculpture Festival continued its Gower tour to Port Eynon on the third day. Port Eynon bay is surrounded by great natural landscape and a quaint seaside village with shops and cafes. Port Eynon Beach has a large golden sandy beach and many different materials such as coloured pebbles and rocks for use in making sculptures. As well as the local community, there are also lots of holiday visitors here in the summer that eagerly await the festival each year. The artists have developed a special essence and formula for the festival that makes it so unique and popular with everyone year after year. It has become a welcome fixture in the summer calendar which is always extremely well attended at Port Eynon. The affection held for the festival is seen and echoed in the photos and the words of the participants.......

A Silky Wave Moth (appropriately named for the beach!) whose habitat is in limestone cliffs was created by this young lad and his mum. The moth is another rare species in Wales that needs help with conservation.

The festival helped people think about materials, textures and colours as well as about endangered species.

Sea horse magic once again! Inspired by the rare (but sighted on Gower) Long Snouted Sea Horse.

This young lad worked with his mum and gran to create a beautiful Sea Horse sculpture using the grey limestone pebbles and some of the ochre coloured ones for decoration together with shells.

We learnt about the different stones on the beach.

It was good to learn about local wildlife!

Participants enjoyed the creative activities on the beach with the surrounding beauty of Port Eynon. Participants liked the idea that they were able to take their time and didn't feel rushed. Participants said they felt supported to develop their own creative journey whilst working on their chosen sculpture. Lots of extended families on holiday attended the festival as well as locals. They enjoyed sharing making experiences together and the chance to create summer memories with opportunities for them to photograph their outcomes.

We learnt about the moth while making our sculptures, only found on Gower and actually also back near our home (The Orme)! Amazing to learn. Environmental art events like this are so worthwhile always. Anything which encourages people to be outside, creative and learn about the environment is crucial to well-being.

Also follow our five waymarking sculptures on the Gower coast path between Mumbles and Rhossili including one at Horton -

See Sculpture on the Coast trail - click here
Dilynwch y Llwybr Cerflun ar y Arfordir - cliciwch yma

This young man is a regular at our festival and really enjoyed creating this large scale sand lizard sculpture. This tiny marine animal was once extinct in Wales but has been successfully reintroduced and can be spotted in the dunes on Gower.

Beautiful Port Eynon Bay is the perfect location for the Beach Sculpture Festival each year.

Wonderful day on the beach, exciting and informative!

The kids really engaged with finding the right materials to make it look realistic - they were so absorbed with the activity.

Choosing which colours and stones to use in our starfish sculpture heightened our creativity.

Some wonderfully thought provoking ideas!

The festival captured people's imaginations.

The Festival is inclusive, free and fun for all ages.

Matt Cooke from Natur am Byth spent a few hours creating this wonderful Silky Wave Moth with several participants using the ochre and white materials such as sand, shells, feathers and seaweed found on the shore to help emulate its pale, ghostly appearance. The Moth has gentle curvy patterns on the wings that shimmer like waves which they enjoyed recreating on their sculpture. It was great to have Matt's knowledge about the endangered species that are living along the local coastline and be able to share this information with our participants. It was also lovely to have Ursula Jones from our amazing main sponsor Gower National Landscape visit the Festival at Port Eynon and to be able to show her all the fabulous sculptures made along the shore.

Thank you to everyone for coming once again and supporting our wonderful art and nature festival.

THANK YOU TO OUR KIND SPONSORS BELOW:
Diolch i bawb am wneud ein gwyl cerflunwaith flynyddol mor llwyddiant unwaith eto. DIOLCH I'N EIN HYRWYDDION SY'N GWYBODAETH BOD

A beautiful blue whale was a carefully created large scale sculpture for these siblings using the blue-grey limestone pebbles found on the shore.

We learnt about endangered marine species through the festival. Very informed artists.

The Festival gives children a hands on opportunity to learn about the beach environment.

A Strandline Beetle sculpture is created using the grey limestone pebbles and ochre stones over living green maram grass for legs. These once exinct marine nocturnal insects are rare but can be found again in Wales. They live in driftwood and hunt sand hoppers during the night which youngsters were amazed to learn about! They also made sculptures about the sand hoppers!

The festival is a great idea, lots of fun.

Beautiful day out!

The event helps kids be creative!

Sand Lizards were the order of the day! These youngsters carved a large scale mother and baby sand lizard from the golden sand on the shore.

Wonderful wholesome fun!

The artists were very encouraging!

Sand Lizards were one of the most popular marine animals to create as a large scale sculpture at Port Eynon. These inquisitive little animals had certainly captured people's imaginations and who were very interested to find all about them in real life.

An environmental awareness about the beach and its marine life was achieved through conversations and while working with the artists. The beach was full of beautiful sculptures in a wonderful plein air gallery. People walking along the shore marvelled at the creations. The artists packed away the flags and displays ready for the next day of the Beach Sculpture festival tour to Bracelet Bay in Mumbles.

To see day 4 of 2025 Festival at Bracelet Bay - click the link at the bottom of this page
I weld gwyl dydd 4 o 2025 yn Bracelet Bay- cliciwch ar y ddolen ar waelod y dudalen hon