Art can be a costly hobby but nature will provide most of the required materials for a special art festival planned for the spring.It’ll only take a rake, and lots of imagination, to produce a work of art for the Bermuda Winter Beach Festival next March.Organiser Nicky Gurret, who also created the popular annual Sand Sculpture Competition held in September, is currently looking for funding for the event.It will also include kite-boarding demonstrations, paddle boarding, nature walks, and sand sculpture tips and techniques. The festival will be held at beaches all over the Island.“I was inspired to try this when someone brought home a newspaper from England,” said Ms Gurret. “[In it there was an] article about the Beach Art Jersey World Championship 2011 held in Jersey, England.“It drew thousands of spectators and was featured in newspapers all over England. I thought Bermuda is an Island just like Jersey with beautiful sand. We could do something like this in Bermuda. There are no dyes involved. You just rake the sand into different patterns. Then the tide washes it away.” She said at first people thought that Bermuda might not have the right kind of beach sand, but she found that this is not the case. She and her family tried making some beach artworks and found it worked just fine.“[The idea behind] beach artwork is to adorn as many of Bermuda’s beautiful beaches as possible [and then celebrate the] creation of art that only lasts until the next high tide washes it away,” she said. “Beach artists use the whole area between high water and low water as their canvas and a rake as their paintbrush. The beaches chosen have a high vantage point where spectator and judges can view the artwork.”Artists will be given a beach to carry out their work. The artist can be a single person or a group of people. No prior experience is required. Ms Gurret will give a workshop in January for those who are interested in participating. The artist will be assigned one beach or in the case where the beach is very long two artworks can be designed on the beach. “Bermudians tend not to go to the beach in the winter time,” said Ms Gurret. “That’s a shame because the beach is beautiful, even in the winter. This will give people an excuse to go.”After the beach art and activities, all are invited to bring their own picnic dinner and hear who the judges picked as the best beach artist at Horseshoe Bay. For more information and videos of beach art being made see www.jerseybeachart.com/.To participate, or for more information, contact Ms Gurret: gurret[AT]northrock.bm or 295-4597.