EDWARD WIELDS A MASTERFUL RAKE
A MYSTERIOUS sand artist has transformed Surf Coast beaches overnight and has intrigued and delighted locals for years.
An untrained artist who goes by the name Edward created the art during the night using only a $14 rake from Bunnings.
Most of the beach etchings are at least 200m long but a recent piece in Barwon Heads stretched 600m around The Bluff.
“I create a rough map in my mind and I imagine myself looking downward on to the beach from an altitude of 200m,” Edward said.
The pieces were created in the dark, without artificial lights, ropes, measuring tools and without using signwriting techniques, he said.
“To my knowledge, no other land artist or sand artist — if that is what I am — does what I do,” Edward said.
It usually takes about one hour and 40 minutes to create the etchings and they can last anywhere between 15 minutes and three hours, depending on the moon and the tides.
The art has been appearing almost fortnightly around the Barwon Heads, Ocean Grove, Torquay and Lorne areas since 2014.
“I like anonymity. I feel there is magic in a moment, believing that a person sitting next to me on a bus may be the next Einstein,” he said.
He said people message the Instagram page he uses to showcase the art to explain why they like it.
“They speak of the emotion it elicits and that fills my heart, it fills me with a humble gratitude and appreciation for the hearts of others,” Edward said.
Photographer Adam Stan first discovered Edward’s sand art in Barwon Heads 18 months ago and captures the creations from above using drones or nearby cliffs.
“I’ll just get a message from him, and I’ll get there just as the sun’s coming up, and he’s all done and gone. It’s quite amazing,” Mr Stan said.
“He likes to disappear into the morning and not be seen.”
The photographer said Edward’s work was well known in the area but because of the scale of the art most people would not be able to see it unless they looked at it from above.
“You can kind of see the raking. But you haven’t got an idea of what it is, on the ground,” he said. “It blows away the local community.”