Made With Nature (9 Photos)

September 2, 2026

By Vidar

Nature did half the work.

Pebbles become skin. Sunlight turns falling water gold. Leaves, ice, sand, driftwood and living plants become part of the work.

🪨 La Scapigliata — By Justin Bateman in Chiang Mai, Thailand 🇹🇭

Bateman’s own 2021 post identifies this as La Scapigliata, made from found stones in Chiang Mai and based on Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait. Pale pebbles form the face. Darker stones mark the eyes, loose hair and shadows.

💡 Nerd Fact: The original panel in Parma measures only 24.7 × 21 centimetres. The museum classifies it as a monochrome painting rather than a drawing, lists its medium as white lead with iron and cinnabar pigments, and records that it entered the gallery from the Callani Collection in 1839.

More: Stone Pebble Portraits by Justin Bateman

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🔥 Fontana Luminosa Looks Like Fire — By Nicola D’Antino in L’Aquila, Italy 🇮🇹

The fountain is still pouring water. In Reddit user daenel’s photograph, sunlight hits the falling spray and turns it gold. The Italian Ministry of Culture dates the fountain to 1933. It credits engineer Bernardino Valentini with the project and Nicola D’Antino with the bronze group. The fountain stands in Piazza Battaglione degli Alpini.

💡 Nerd Fact: The bronze figures hold a conca abruzzese. Treccani describes it as a hammered-copper vessel traditionally carried by women at the hip or balanced on the head over a padded ring called a cercine.

More: When Sunlight Turns Fontana Luminosa Into Lava

🍂 Array — By Jon Foreman at Little Milford, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK 🇬🇧

For Array at Little Milford, Jon Foreman used clay and dark earth to make a circular form that looks like a deep hollow. He says he did not cut into or harm the tree. Leaves fixed with mud and clay shift from green through yellow to orange around it.

💡 Nerd Fact: Little Milford Wood is believed to date from at least the 11th century. During the 20th century, around three quarters of its original oak was removed for commercial forestry. In 2012, the National Trust harvested most of the conifers and replanted the cleared areas with a mix of broadleaved trees.

More: 10 Forest Sculptures by Jon Foreman

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🌊 Beach Blanket (Don’t Sleep on Climate Change) — By Ian Mutch at Bunker Bay, Western Australia 🇦🇺

In his original post, Ian Mutch called the work Beach Blanket (Don’t Sleep on Climate Change). He raked the sleeping figure into the sand at Bunker Bay. The incoming sea becomes its blanket, and Christian Fletcher photographed the temporary work from above by drone.

💡 Nerd Fact: Mutch identified Beach Blanket as his first beach drawing. His beach murals normally disappear within one or two days, leaving photographs and video as their surviving record.

More: Beach Art by Ian Mutch in Australia

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🐴 Exmoor Ponies — By Beach4Art at Sandymere Beach, North Devon, England, UK 🇬🇧

Beach4Art artists Ieva Slare and Dzintars Slars built the adult pony and foal at Sandymere Beach from pebbles, seaweed and driftwood. ITV reported that Exmoor Ponies took about eight hours across two days. Low tide left it intact overnight, so they could return to add the mane and tail.

💡 Nerd Fact: In 1948, two Exmoor ponies were sent to London Zoo to publicize the fact that only about 50 remained on the moor. The Exmoor Pony Society now estimates about 500 on Exmoor, but the breed remains classified as endangered because its genetic pool is small.

More: Amazing Stone Art by Beach4Art

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🧊 Mirage — By David Popa in Southern Finland 🇫🇮

For his first portrait on ice, David Popa mixed charcoal with water and a little salt on a small floe in southern Finland. The ice split shortly after he began. He continued across both pieces, but water spilling over the surface kept him from fully completing the face. He later shared the work under the title Mirage.

💡 Nerd Fact: Popa added the salt to keep the charcoal mixture from freezing too quickly. The ice absorbed the charcoal into its surface, so several layers were needed to produce the darkest values.

More: Creating a Portrait on a Small Ice Floe

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🐚 Birth — By Debra Bernier of Vancouver Island, Canada 🇨🇦

Debra Bernier used the bends and grain already present in the driftwood to shape a mother holding an infant and a shell. Her official page for Birth names the sculpture and identifies it as one of her original works.

💡 Nerd Fact: Driftwood also plays a role in coastal ecosystems. A peer-reviewed Canadian review lists habitat, structure, nutrients and carbon storage among its ecological functions.

More: 19 Driftwood Sculptures by Debra Bernier

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🐞 The Ladybug Wrangler — By David Zinn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA 🇺🇸

Zinn built this temporary scene from chalk, charcoal, a clump of sidewalk weeds and a piece of dropped gum. The gum becomes the ladybug Maude is trying to catch. His official video titles the work The Ladybug Wrangler and dates it to August 9, 2026, in Ann Arbor.

💡 Nerd Fact: Cornell University also runs a real Lost Ladybug Project: a citizen-science survey supporting the conservation and restoration of native lady beetles across North America.

More: David Zinn Made Us Smile Again

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