Andy Goldsworthy Research

Andy Goldsworthy is a British photographer, sculptor and environmentalist. All of his creations are made from natural materials that he finds in the outdoors. Mostly including wood (twigs and branches), leaves, coloured produce (petals, flowers and red berries), mud & dust and ice & snow.

In the past, Goldsworthy has said "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole." However, he has often added detailing and patterns to some aspects of his work, such as his sculpture of stones in a spiral shape. He has cut the stones in half (probably using a larger rock) and added pattern to each side of the stone to create a tone of continuity. 

I really like Goldsworthy's work and have many favourites. One of which is called 'Gold Rowan leaves with hole'. It is leaves placed in a circular way, with the darker colours out on the outside of the circle and the colours gradually get lighter until the middle, which is a black hole. I think this piece represent the sun, the colours have obviously been chosen to look like this, and also has a typical autumn-like colour palette.

Another favourite of mine is an icicle made into a large star shape. It is very striking, and seems very difficult to create using just natural materials; it is reported that Goldsworthy actually used his own saliva to hold the icicles together in the shapes formation. Also, in the photograph of the piece, it seems to be holding itself up, as it is not being propped up by anything, as the background has a vast landscape behind. 

I think Goldsworthy shows definite themes in his work. Spirals, sharp edges and intricate pattern are shown throughout. A similar image to the icicle above, is spiralled ice wrapped around a thin tree. I think this would have also been very hard to create because, again, it doesn't seem to be obviously attached to the tree. Also, the spiralling shape of the ice would be hard to execute.