Summer Is Here To Stay. Sculpture by the Sea 2010.

Today was the final day of Sculpture by the Sea on Bondi Beach.  I have been to the event at Cottesloe (or 'the Cott') back in Perth but never to the one in Sydney.  Cottesloe is Bondi's tasteful and sensible alter ego.  The one who eschews talking to the press and being papp'd but still has the same soft spot for European cars, yoga, organic produce and good coffee (the last 2 may be a contradiction in terms to most but in high end beachside areas in Australia, they go hand in hand).

Mr SSG and I decided to make the drive across the city to hit the beach and take advantage of both art and the wonderful weather simultaneously.

We hit the road at the crack of dawn.  It was already shaping up to be a very warm day.

Isn't Sydney traffic (or lack thereof) a wonderful thing?

For some reason, whenever Mr SSG is at the wheel. we get across the city to the East in a very timely manner without any unintentional detours across to the North.

For me, Bondi Beach is a heady mix of the various microcosms of Sydney life.  Sunday morning wakes up with a bit of a hangover and a few regrets over the night before.  There are bags of rubbish waiting to be collected and the garbage trucks make light work of the dozens of bags on the sidewalk.  People are making their way home, heels in hand and make up a little smudged.

For those who love fresh air, sand and sun - Sunday morning is the start of a week of healthful activity.  Swimmers line up to get some laps in at Icebergs.  Hunky surfers converse in French, German and Spanish as they make their way to the surf - half dressed in their wet suits (you wouldn't want all that exercise to go unnoticed and hidden under your surfing gear, would you?).

The rest of us descended on the beach dressed in walking gear and armed with our cameras and water bottles.  One of the advantages of being there so early was the chance to witness the changing light on the beach and the art works as the sun rose.

Unfortunately, I didn't buy a program.  Instead, we will just have to ponder my happy snaps and try to get into the minds of the artists by mental telepathy.  Not always an easy task the morning after the night before.

I really enjoyed the exhibition.  As a community event, it was lovely to see something that encouraged people to get outdoors and appreciate the natural assets of this city as well as giving artists a chance to show their work to a broader audience.  As much as I love and engage with electronic media, physicality to art and nature is something I feel should be encouraged and made available to as many people as possible.

The exhibition was made up of installations on the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk.  There were over 100 works on display and the artists were both from Australia and abroad.

I don't know how the sculptures survived being transported so close to the sea, but they did.

There was a diverse mix of sculptures.

Some pieces enabled us to view the landscape through from different view points.

Others made use of the local geography.

The light played games with some of the sculpture media.

Visitors were respectful of the art works and observed the tactful reminders not to touch, climb or enter (in the case of the chicken, more later) the sculptures.

I liked seeing the way people explored the environment around the installations.

The final leg (no pun intended) of our walk this morning took us to Tamarama Bay.  I really enjoyed this section.  There were quite  few sculptures displayed on the beach.

Going barefoot on the beach was sorely tempting.

There was a burst of colour, provided by cleverly arranged plastic bottle tops.

A chicken nesting on the beach.

Which we were politely advised not to enter.

A voluptuous stone nude reclining on the beach.

A casually discarded pair of sunglasses reflecting the activity of the beach on a Sunday morning.

 A stone arched rainbow at the end of the walk.

I think summer is here to stay.