Indian sand artist wins prize in Denmark

Bhubaneswar: A sand sculpture on marine conservation created by Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the prestigious audience prize at an international sand art competition held in Copenhagen, the artist said Wednesday.

Pattnaik`s 20-feet high sculpture `Save the Ocean` got as many as 23,000 votes from a total of 80,000 cast by visitors at the Copenhagen International sand sculpture championship and festival, which began May 31 in Denmark. Nine other artists from different parts of the world, including Canada, Russia, Bulgaria, Ireland, England, Germany, Ukraine and Ghana, had also participated in the competition, Pattnaik told reporters. "For this sculpture I had won the 1st prize May 31. The result of the `Politiken Plus Audience Prize` was announced Tuesday after the voting ended," he said. The sculpture will be on display at the festival till Sep 9, Pattnaik said. "Inge Faerch, the director of the festival informed me today (Wednesday) on e-mail the result of the audience prize and congratulated me," he added. Pattnaik has been doing sand art for more than 20 years at the beach of his home town Puri, 57 km from here. He has participated in more than 50 international sand art competitions across the globe and won many accolades. IANS