When most of us see snow, we think about snow sports, making snow angels, snowball fights, and how it's a pain to shovel.
But for British "snow artist" Simon Beck, snow is a fresh canvas for creating art! Specifically stunning, large-scale art that's made with his own two feet and snowshoes!
Beck's newest creations are geometrically inspired. He went to Oxford and is an engineer who also does orienteering and map-making.
He chooses a site, usually a flat piece of land with fresh snowfall, and hikes out to it. He then measures it and works outwards from the center. He says "Straight lines are made by using the compass and walking in a straight line towards a point in the distance, curves are made by judgement. Both require a lot of practice to get it good. When the primary straight lines and curves have been made, points are measured along them using pace counting for distance measurement. Next, the secondary lines are added by joining the points determined by the above process. Usually I walk the lines three times to get them really good, if there is enough time. Lastly, the shaded areas are filled in."
As you can imagine, each of these works of art takes several hours of physical stamina and also lots of concentration. Beck has been doing this for over a decade and recently released a book that features over 200 photos of his magical works of art.
Take a look at some of his creations below!