Look What They Made From the Ground (8 Photos)

The ground is not just the setting.

Pebbles become portraits, sand holds giant drawings, and a lawn in New York becomes a scene visible from above. These eight works use the landscape as part of the art.

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🪨 “Mandela Mandala” — By Justin Bateman in Chiang Mai, Thailand 🇹🇭

Bateman identifies the work as a 2021 impermanent portrait made from found stones in Chiang Mai. Natural shifts from pale tan to deep brown shape Mandela’s face while leaving each pebble visible.

💡 Nerd Fact: “Madiba” is the name of the Thembu clan to which Mandela belonged, not a personal nickname. The Nelson Mandela Foundation says he was called Madiba as a sign of respect and affection.

More: See 12 Pebble Portraits by Justin Bateman

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🔥 “Prometheus” — By David Popa in Crete, Greece 🇬🇷

Popa says the work was made with natural pigments and water, including black pigment from coconut charcoal and white pigment from oyster shell. Painted across a cracked coastal rock formation in Crete, the fissures become part of the face before the elements gradually erase it.

💡 Nerd Fact: Pausanias described an Athenian torch race that began at an altar of Prometheus in the Academy. If a runner’s flame went out, that runner could no longer win.

More: See David Popa’s Full “Prometheus” Project

🔗 Visit David Popa’s project page

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🕯️ “Masonry Messiah” — By Justin Bateman in Chiang Mai, Thailand 🇹🇭

Bateman identifies “Masonry Messiah” as a 2021 pebble work made in Chiang Mai. Pale stones shape the face, while darker pieces build the hair, eyes, and beard, keeping the portrait visibly rooted in its material.

💡 Nerd Fact: According to the Society of Biblical Literature’s Bible Odyssey, “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew for “anointed one.” The Greek equivalent is christos, the source of “Christ.”

More: Explore Justin Bateman’s Pebble Portraits (12 Photos)

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🛒 “Car Park” — By Ian Mutch in Busselton, Western Australia 🇦🇺

Mutch identifies “Car Park” as a land drawing made in a vacant block in Busselton. From above, the drawn figure appears to push a real shopping trolley filled with objects, turning the flat image into a three-dimensional scene. Photo by Christian Fletcher.

💡 Nerd Fact: Oklahoma grocer Sylvan Goldman developed his folding basket carriage around 1937. Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History preserves an example of the wheeled folding frame designed to carry two removable baskets.

More: See 6 Land and Beach Drawings by Ian Mutch

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🐚 “The Birth of Venus” — By Jben and Thomas Cambois in Royan, France 🇫🇷

Created on 9 March 2022 at Plage du Chay in Royan, the 20-metre-tall figure of Venus was completed in four hours and 56 minutes during a single low tide. Jben describes it as a collaboration combining his beach-art experience with painter Thomas Cambois’s eye for tonal shading.

💡 Nerd Fact: Despite its familiar title, Botticelli’s original painting does not show the moment of Venus’s birth. The Uffizi Galleries identify the scene as her arrival on Cyprus after emerging from the sea.

More: See Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” Recreated in Sand (5 Photos)

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🌀 “Circumflexus” — By Jon Foreman in Llano, Texas, USA 🇺🇸

Foreman says “Circumflexus” took four days and was created for the 2022 Llano Earth Art Fest. At Grenwelge Park beside the Llano River, rows of stones shift from large and dark to small and pale; the kneeling figure shows the work’s scale. Photo by Laurence Winram Photography.

💡 Nerd Fact: The wider Llano region contains Precambrian rocks that underwent regional metamorphism about 1.05 billion years ago, according to the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology.

More: See 15 Land Artworks by Jon Foreman

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🫣 “Head in the Sand” — By Ian Mutch near Wyadup Rocks, Western Australia 🇦🇺

A giant figure buries its head in the beach, turning the familiar phrase into a literal image. Mutch’s own archive says it was made near Wyadup Rocks just days before Australia’s COVID lockdown, in response to public confusion and panic buying. Photo by Christian Fletcher.

💡 Nerd Fact: Ostriches do not bury their heads to hide. Smithsonian’s National Zoo says the myth likely comes from birds checking eggs in ground nests or lying low with their necks pressed to the ground.

More: See Ian Mutch’s Beach Drawings (6 Artworks)

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🌍 “World in Progress II” — By Saype in New York City, USA 🇺🇸

Painted across the United Nations north lawn in 2021, this 11,000-square-metre work uses biodegradable paint on grass. Its official presentation described two children building the world of tomorrow as a call for international solidarity.

💡 Nerd Fact: The United Nations owns its New York headquarters site, which is considered international territory, according to the UN.

More: See Saype’s New York Land-Art Project (12 Photos)

🔗 Visit Saype’s official project page