French Artist Spends 12 Hours Each On Artwork In The Snow

And then watches the drawings disappear.

French artist Simon Beck spends up to 12 hours creating giant drawings in the snow, knowing they will soon disappear without a trace. His works - complex geometric patterns resembling snowflakes, stars or flowers - can reach the size of three soccer fields and exist only until the first wind, thaw or fresh snowfall, writes The Washington Post (translated by Charter97.org).

Beck is 67 years old and has created nearly 700 drawings in snow and sand over two decades. Formerly a cartographer, he first designs patterns on paper and then transfers them to the surface using only a compass and snowshoes. "In cartography you reduce reality to a map, but here the process is reversed," he explains.

The artist works alone, mostly in the French Alps, most often on frozen lakes. The snow art season is short, from late October to early March. After finishing his work, Beck photographs it with a drone or from an elevated position, after which the drawing disappears. He says ephemerality is a key part of the concept: each new snowfall yields a blank canvas.

Sometimes tourists and skiers watch the process. Once, more than 70 people followed his work, applauding and filming on cameras. More often, however, Beck works in silence, listening to classical music.

"The earth is beautiful, the snow is beautiful, and winter is beautiful," says the artist, whose art lives only for a moment but is remembered for a long time.

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