Some driftwood shapes, whether tree trunks, stumps or simple branches, lend themselves to the imagination. Here are a few examples from beaches around New Zealand.
“Iguanodons” playing on the beach at Orokawa Bay, near Waihi Beach.
A reclining figure, inspired by Edward Weston’s images
The rootmass of washed-up tree stumps, Browns Bay, Auckland.
A tiger’s head? A wolf?
Various pieces of wood washed up along the coast at Makara, west of Wellington. I can’t explain the blue ink-like shapes with the blue bleeding into the yellow/brown of the wood.
This was the starting point, back in about 1977, the rootmass of a toppled tree in hill country north of Gisborne. It reminded me (and still reminds me) of the ancient sculpture of Laocoon, the Trojan priest who tried to warn that the Trojan Horse was a ruse, but he and his sons were attacked and killed by sea serpents.
Bill Leask Photography 