Warm summer sunshine and blue skies awaited beach artist Simon Wheatley and 18 participants on Sunday 11th August at Bardsea Beach as they set about the task of creating a giant mandala in the sands of Morecambe Bay.
Simon is a long-standing supporter of Growing Well and suggested creating one of his magical mandalas to raise awareness as part of our 20 For 20 campaign celebrating 20 years since our charity was established.
Mandalas are Buddhist devotional images often deemed to symbolise an ideal universe. They come in many forms, often painted on scrolls, and Simon has become something of a renowned expert for creating these on sandy beaches, not to mention his other incredible beach artworks.
Simon’s mandalas come in all shapes and sizes (we recommend having a look at his Instagram account) and this one was over 50 meters in diameter and took around five hours to complete.
Simon chose the August date because of the tides in Morecambe Bay, as that day falls in a ‘neap tide’ week which meant he would have a dry beach to draw on that day.
Bardsea is also where Netflix filmed Simon recently making a mandala for National Geographic, which should be on your TV screens in late summer.
Rebecca Batstone is the Partnerships Manager at Growing Well, said: “We are hugely grateful to everyone who gave up their day to pick up a rake and work with Simon to produce this amazing piece of beach art.”
“The interest this has generated across the press and on social media has really helped raise awareness of Growing Well, and we all would like to thank Simon for his incredible efforts and wonderful creativity.”
We’d also like to extend our thanks to local photographer and videographer Scott Thomson who also captured some great drone images of the completed mandala and filmed the day, with the ‘Circles in the Sand’ seen above.
