It's that time of the year again!
Time for the magnificent, stunning and mind blowing ice sculptures of the Ice Magic 2019
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the ice festival being held at the Fairmont Chateau
on the shore of Lake Louise. And as every year the sculptures did not
disappoint. For me it seems just so impossible to carve something that
beautiful and delicate out of blocks of ice. The carvers also had to
fight with unusual warm weather on that 3rd weekend of January.
For more information on the rules and regulations of Ice Magic please see my "As cold as Ice blog" where I describe in detail what the artists have to accomplish.
First Place, Carver's Choice & People's Choice this year: "Ice Queen Treasures" made by Team Ledus - Karlis Ile and Maija Puncule from Lativa
An incredible delicate sculpture...just amazing!
Remember the mammoth two years ago? It was created by Team Ledus
Second Place: "Sun Dance" by Team Sakha - Stepanov and Alexey Andreev from Russia
Team Sakha always captivates it's audience with dazzling sculptures and has won multiple awards in the years I'm traveling to Lake Louise to photograph Ice Magic, my favorite being the "Guardian" in 2017
Third Place: "Plumber's Nightmare" by Team Rusty and Steve - Rusty Cox and Steve Buzak from Canada
One wonders, how they came up with this idea? If it wouldn't have been called a plumber's nightmare, I would have guessed it's a hint towards Canada's oil pipes. And, I'm relatively sure these two artists have young children...the 'men' on the pipes look rather closely like little Lego figures, don't you think?
The sculpture had lot's of detail!
As with most of the sculptures, the night shots bring out the detail much better than the day photography.
The following three sculptures have not been placed, however they are beautiful nevertheless.
Team Elegant Dream - Don Lowing USA and Mowafak Nema Irac
Unfortunately I couldn't find a name for this artwork...maybe "The Hunter"?
Also without a name this sculpture from Team Russian Bears - by Eduard Ponomarenka and Valeriy Batalov from...Russia.
Team Russian Bear won second place in 2017 with their amazing sculpture "Ancestral"
My favorite 'not placed' sculpture however was "Time Waits For No Body" by Team CRA/KEN - Ken Harper, Canada and Craig McConnell, USA
The execution was very vivid and of course the Dali Clock is an eye-catcher. What I REALLY like though is they provided an explanation to their sculpture! I wish this would be provided for all of the sculptures!!!
Without this explanation I would not have been able to appreciate it as much!
In addition to the BIG Ice Sculpture competition, there was a second, smaller competition going on, called: "One Carver, One Hour, One Block"
This rocking horse with wings made the second place n the competition but the first place in my heart. Again, unfortunately no explanation or even name of the artwork or the artist...
I see it as the rocking horse of possibilities. If you are young, the sky is your limit, with this rocking horse you can fly where ever you want to!
