By George Brown V

Dark clouds looming over the City threatened to dampen the spirits of eager participants and spectators hoping to gather at Ocean Beach to create sand art on New Year’s Day.

With a little New Year’s luck, there was only an intermittent drizzle, so skilled artists and novices grabbed their rakes to welcome 2026 with inventive drawings, using the beach as their blank canvas as they immersed themselves in the art of “earthscaping.”

A majority of the sketches that adorned Ocean Beach included intricate floral designs. Some artists drew hearts and hopeful messages welcoming the new year, while one crafted a striking illustration of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The sand art spanned an expanse of Ocean Beach and caught the attention of many passersby who stopped to take in the beautiful scenery.

This event is just one of many organized by earthscape artist Andres Amador. Amador, a San Francisco native who has now lived in Nevada City, Calif. for approximately 15 years, drives more than two hours to San Francisco regularly to showcase and share his craft.

“I create art using materials on the earth as a landscape, so I call myself an earthscape artist,” Amador said. “My art is large-scale, ephemeral and nature-based in many different settings.”

Amador began his work on the beach in 2004 with large-scale sculpture art, which was geometrically oriented.

“I started studying geometry and then began looking at crop circles,” Amador recounted. “It then dawned on me that the beach itself would be an amazing canvas.”

Amador began teaching instructional workshops to to share the experience of constructing large-scale earthscape art on the beach, .

“I get to share my experience while tapping into creativity, while also connecting with nature and each other,” Amador said. “It’s a way for the community to come together to do something positive.”

This special New Year’s Day event was attended not only by local San Franciscans but also by people from afar, including Sonny Dhanda, who came with his friend, Rita, from Tracy, Calif. The couple discovered this activity while searching online for things to do in San Francisco on New Year’s Day and together etched a detailed blossom in the sand.

“This event is a great way for people to come out on New Year’s Day,” Dhanda said. “People are able to get outside, do art together and even make some new friends.”

Another pair of excited attendees, Zoya Brahimzadeh and Justin Lee, chose the area just beneath the Cliff House to exhibit their sand art. Brahimzadeh, who had been following Amador on Instagram after having previously attended one of his sand art community events, surprised Lee with this special event on the first day of the new year.

“I really like the theme of flowers and how the art washing away at the end of the day symbolizes a new year,” Lee said.

Both Brahimzadeh and Lee agreed that this was a wonderful experience and said they would love to try to incorporate other beach aspects, such as seashells, to make the art more interactive with nature in the future.

“A lot of people who decided to come to this event told me they hadn’t done any art before and that they wouldn’t do the sand art as well,” Amador said. “But this kind of event is one where I can let people loose.”

In addition to providing rakes, the tool of choice for sand art, Amador offers guidance on various techniques to help people create their original artwork. They may be inspired by the other designs on the beach, but the hope is for people to embrace any possibility they can imagine. Amador even has a drone to take aerial pictures of artists with their completed unique masterpieces.

“My desire is for people to see their creative capacity that they wouldn’t otherwise believe in, and that it is important for us to do these things together,” Amador said.

Andres Amador frequently organizes earthscape events around the Bay Area. The next free community sand art events he has organized at Ocean Beach are scheduled at 1 p.m.on Saturday, Feb. 28 and March 28. He also hosts occasional teaching workshops for people to learn the art of earthscaping. More information can be found on Amador’s Instagram: @andresamadorarts.