TONY PLANT

Beach drawing has been at the heart of Tony Plant’s practice for decades. Writer Marcel Theroux describes him as “an artist in the really pure sense of the word. To him, making these things is as natural as breathing.”
Guardian newspaper

Tony Plant, midsummers day land art drawing on north coast of Cornwall

Mid Summers Day Sunset
2025 North coast Cornwall
Rake. 24,997 steps
1.8m tide

Tony Plant’s Mid Summers Day Sunset beach drawing on the north coast of Cornwall (2015), raked into wet sand in sweeping concentric circles and pathways as the tide recedes. The artwork was made by hand with a rake—24,997 steps—timed to a 1.8m tide

Mid Summers Day Sunset
2015 North coast Cornwall
Rake. 21,780 steps
1.6m tide

Tony Plant creating large-scale spinning sand art on Playa Sonabia during a filmed beach drawing session in Cantabria, Northern Spain. The photograph shows expansive concentric circles raked into the sand, with a crew documenting the work from above

Playa Sonabia
2013
Northern Spain with Joey L
Rake. 31,551 steps
0.9m tide 

Behind-the-scenes aerial view of Tony Plant’s beach art: a large half-moon (crescent) sand drawing surrounded by intricate circles and spirals, created during a dropping tide beneath dramatic cliffs and Atlantic waves

Half Moon
2023 North coast Cornwall
Rake. 23,064steps
1.2m tide

Monochrome coastal photograph of a Tony Plant beach drawing at low tide: a dense, circular web of looping lines radiates around a bright central oval, etched into smooth sand. The ephemeral land art sits in a sheltered cove framed by rugged cliffs and sea

Experimenting with BIG Curves II
2013 North coast Cornwall
Rake. 15,821steps
1.7m tide

Tony Plant remembrance beach drawing for good friend and film maker Sam Buckle at Tolcarne Beach Cornwall” — A quiet, wide view of the shoreline frames Tony Plant’s sweeping sand drawing made in remembrance of Sam Buckle. Interlaced circles, spirals

Nomad Circle for Buckle
2024 North coast Cornwall
Rake. 21,330 steps
1.9m tide

Tony Plant artist site specific artwork in bracken, Shropshire Hills National Trust Commission, Carding Mill Valley

Public night walk
National Trust commission
2017 Shropshire Hills
1.5 km x 1 km

Rather than a tide rearranging the drawing, in this commission, the seasons washed through, changing the colours and size of the piece over subsequent years.

Playa Orinon
2013
Rake. 22,972 steps
1.1m tide 

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