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Sandart is Fantastic

The workers of the Youth Program Department of the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve developed a methodology for conducting activities for children using sandart.

Sandart, one of the modern art forms that arose in the 1970-s of the last century, is drawing using sand on the glass surface of a special backlit tabletop, in a darkened room. Purified and screened sand is applied to the glass as a background against which the elements of the picture are drawn with the fingers. The glass itself can also serve as a background, against which the picture is drawn with the sand pouring.

Drawing with sand is another important instrument for cognition of the world and a means of aesthetic perception and development.

Sand is another “paint” though working on the “light and shade” principle, perfectly conveying human feelings.

The first sand drawing was tried at the literary and ethnographic holiday “Steed is the Dearest for Cossack”: on the special backlit glass tabletop the children drew with sand figures of horses, then turned the “pouring paints” into a steppe landscape, an underwater world, a forest with outlandish birds and animals. The children liked sandart and showed their endless ingenuity.

Sandart can be both an independent form of creative activity and a part of a complex museum activity. The museum workers held a children’s activity “What has the Picture Told Us about?” based on the materials of the exhibition ”West European Art” from the State A.S.Pushkin Museum. The children acting as painters embodied their impressions of the exhibition in sand drawing.

Simple, ordinary and plain sand… But as soon as the lights went out, the hands turned the fine-grained sand covering the transparent glass tabletop into wonderful pictures. Sandart has become a fascinating process involving all spheres of the senses, encouraging creativity and simultaneously relaxing and inspiring.

Nina Steblina