Andy Goldsworthy: the artist of nature

Pablo Picasso said, “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” Scottish artist, Andy Goldsworthy’s art has been described as abstract because his work has many dimensions. However he’s an artist in the full sense of the word; a conceptual artist, a sculptor, and still life photographer. His work is created using sculpture as the dominant component and is then matched with the tool of photography to capture his temporary pieces. This is an artist who is compelled by the way light falls on elements of nature such as stone, water and leaves. Landscape is the materials he uses to capture and create temporary pieces made of nature. These structures made from nature would collapse with the wind or incoming tide or any other aspects of the environment’s hand; as fleeting as Mother Nature herself. His art illustrates aspect of the natural world by the use of rhythm and repetition, the interdependence of all parts of his compositions and lastly by being able to communicate his ideas through form color and surface without resorting to the use of clichéd symbols or text.
Andy Goldsworthy’s use of rhythm and repetition are the primary characteristics of his work. Some of his first pieces were that of large objects made of a variety of flat rocks that once built resembled a stone egg. They are very large in scale and beautiful pieces that reminded me of the large Japanese prayer stones. In these pieces for example he would start with a circular pattern of flat stones in similar dark hue and slowly stack the flat rocks on top of one another in a repeating circular motion.

To reiterate, his art illustrates aspect of the natural world by the use of rhythm and repetition, the interdependence of all parts of his compositions and lastly by being able to communicate his ideas through form color and surface without resorting to the use of clichéd symbols or text. I believe that Andy Goldsworthy is an artist who illustrates aspects of the natural world, and knows that all things are ephemeral. He creates his concepts with this thought in mind, and takes great passion when creating the sculptures and greater caring photographing them so that he can share these natural moments of beauty with others. He believes "Nature can be harsh - difficult and brutal, as well as beautiful".