WANT to really impress folks on the beach this summer? Then build a wow-factor sand sculpture. Sand art is popular on many sunny beaches abroad and attracts appreciative donations. It has fans in Ireland, too, and there is a National Sand Sculpting and Sandcastle Competition in Bettystown, Co Meath, writes GRACE WYNNE-JONES

Launched in 2003, this year’s sand fest took place on July 5th. Despite the rain, it attracted about 200participants for the children’s competition, 60 adult sculptors and roughly 350 onlookers. “The standard had increased on previous years. Some were really excellent,” says the competition’s founder, Dick O’Reilly.

The recent Roundstone Arts Week also included a sand- sculpting competition. Richard de Stacpoole, who organised the festival with Ann Conneely, explains that each sculpture needed to have a “story” attached to it. This year’s winning sculpture was a boat with life belts and oars, and the story was about sea safety.

Dubliner Daniel Doyle has managed to turn his “ephemeral art” into a career. There is an international demand for magnificent if fleeting creations in sand, snow and ice, and Doyle has participated in major international sand-sculpting exhibitions. Although much of his work is done abroad you’ll get a chance to see him and three colleagues at work in the grounds of Dublin Castle over the next week. They will be constructing huge sand sculptures inspired by the four elements, and Doyle’s somewhat challenging assignment is wind.

When advising sand-art novices, Doyle says: “Don’t think sandcastles. It feels like work. With a face or a person, they will have more fun.” Beach sand isn’t suited to complicated structures, because they require sharp sand with clay or silt in it.

“The sharpness of the sand helps it lock together and the silt or clay acts as a natural glue,” he says. “We use a lot of river and glacial sand from quarries. When this dries, it is hard and bakes in the sun.”

Doyle loves that sand is “a fast material”. Many of his sculptures are completed in a week. Although he is serious about his sculptures, their fleeting existence requires a philosophical attitude. “The fact that it doesn’t last forever is a nice thing about it.”

Doyle believes he is probably making a better living from ephemeral art than from more lasting sculptures, and if all of his work was intact, he reckons it would cover a couple of football pitches. “I specialise in sand events during the summer, and in the winter, snow and ice.”

He sometimes “sculpts” fire too. “You make a sculpture out of wood and then set it on fire. The way it burns is the sculpture.”

If you turn up to watch him and his colleagues at work in Dublin this summer, you’ll see this is no bucket-and-spade enterprise. A digger and tractor will be required, along with five truckloads of sand.

Doyle and fellow artists Niall Magee and Alan Magee studied sculpture at the Dublin Institute of Technology, and in 2001 they formed a company called Duthain Dealbh, which means Fleeting Sculpture. They will be working in Dublin Castle with Dutch sand sculptor Anique Kuizenga. This is the sixth time Dublin Castle has hosted the team’s work.

Sculpting tips

• Find out how far the tide is going to come in
• Add lots of water to the sand and stamp on it to get the air out
• Build a mound as big as the sculpture you want to make
• Use tools that work for you: lollipop sticks, painters' palette knives, spoons, different sized trowels and house-paint brushes for brushing away loose sand
• First, rough out your sculpture without details; they are added last
• Cover your sculpture with a plastic sheet if it rains heavily
• Start at the top of your sculpture and work down; otherwise sand will fall and cover what you've done
  Do not make large holes in beach sand
• Don't pat the final work, as it might collapse. Use your hands to smooth it
• Inspiring sites: www.duthain-dealbh.com, www.sandyfeet.com

The sand sculptures will take shape from today until the end of July in the Dublin Castle’s Upper Courtyard, from 10am to 5.30pm. The finished sculptures will be on display until August 26th