Painting portraits with charcoal onto floating ice with David Popa
At first, when I saw these works I didn’t know if it was real or not but as it turns out it is real and it’s absolutely incredible. Originally born and raised in NYC artist David Popa now finds himself in Finland panting on islands and ice in the Nordic region. His works are always created using natural pigments from the area he is working. Materials such as charcoal, ground shells, and more. By using this type of pigment Popa is connecting to the past creating art in a similar way as cavemen would have.
The first video of David that caught my eye was of him standing alone on several large pieces of floating ice and painting an entire face onto the surface. In the video you see him using just charcoal, water, and a bit of salt to make the work last longer on the surface. Shortly after beginning this work the ice split in half causing David to have to work faster and still not allowing him time to complete the work as much as he would like. However, this was just the beginning of this new series as Popa now knew the concept could work.
When working on his second work in the series the same issue of the ice breaking apart accursed and after he struggled to try and keep it together he decided he had no control over the ice and to go with the flow. The end result is just as beautiful and even holds a deeper meaning about the constant changes in nature around us and how we as humans may not always call the shots as we would hope.
Each of David’s works is immortalized in photography and video taken using drones and later turned into prints and NFTs for the audience to collect. You can view more of his works on his Instagram or website.
Images © David Popa
(If you are an artist and would like to be removed from our website simply email us and we will be happy to take down the article. We claim no ownership of any of the images featured, all copyrights go to the artists we feature.)
Discover more articles about murals here.
Did you enjoy this article or want to SUBMIT your own ART projects? Join our Patreon today if you would like to receive bonus content or join our “submissions package” and start sharing your projects today with our over 350k audience. Currently, Myartisreal is a small team but we are looking to grow and expand on our art content and help artists the best way we can. Joining Patreon will go a long way in helping us achieve these goals. SIGN UP/SUBMIT ART