New River Beach hosts professional sand sculpture competition

Guy-Olivier Deveau brought considerable experience this weekend to the Bay of Fundy Sand Sculpture Festival in New River Beach, southwest of Saint John.

Deveau was born and raised in the Magdalen Islands. He learned about sand sculpting from local artists and entered some local competitions. From there, he moved to Quebec City and carved out a career as a sculptor of wood, ice and sand.

"I learned the basics of sand sculpting there because we're surrounded by beaches on that island," he said. "When I moved to Quebec City, I met up with some professionals and I became an apprentice with them and I started doing professional events."

Deveau, who is the artist director of the Hôtel de Glace in Quebec, has since competed around the world. He was part of one of three teams that competed at this weekend's sand sculpture festival.

The teams built a sculpture a day, with judges picking a winner each day and a grand champion at the end of the weekend.

Karen Fralich, a professional sand sculptor from Toronto and one of the festival organizers, says the size and level of detail distinguishes the work of the pros from the popular amateur competitions that have been hosted on this beach.

"Some of them are eight feet high and about 10 feet wide," Fralich said. "They're probably 10 to 15 tons of sand that they've compacted in about two hours before they began carving it. They only have seven hours from start to finish to complete their masterpieces. It is a marathon."

Deveau's piece on Sunday was abstract — a circular sculpture with four faces emerging from the sand.

People from around the region attended the festival, including Tyler Slipp, and his children, Payton and Wyatt.

Payton admired the beauty of the pieces, especially compared to what kids produce for fun on the province's beaches.

"If I try to make a sandcastle, it almost just looks like a toddler made it," Payton said. "When these people [do it], it's just amazing. They could just spend their whole lives working on something like this and just for people to look at and then eventually it would just be washed away."

Fralich says sand sculpture artists are at peace with the temporary nature of their pieces.

"As long as I get to carve what I want to carve, it's all about the experience," she said. "Then I'm happy to take pictures and walk away and let Mother Nature have her way with it."