Natural abstract dendritic patterns made by the deposition of fine deep red sediment being carried across the sandy beach surface by water seeping out of the base of the solifluction terrace at the foot of Rhossili Down on the Gower Peninsula in South Wales.
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Jessica's Nature Blog 
Real art, even if by chance.
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Thank you, Lucy. I wondered what people would think of these images. They are, indeed, accidental or found art. I guess something like this is basically a geophysical phenomenon which “becomes” art only when someone looks at it in a certain way, when it is captured through the viewfinder of the camera, or translated into a painting. This would especially apply to an abstracted image.
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The process creating these patterns both generates some order (through the flow of water in one direction) and some disorder. Beauty, I think, arises from the balance of order and disorder.
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I think you are right – yet so many believe beauty to lie in order, perfection, and flawlessness.
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I think so. The idea that beauty is connected to perfection might go as far back as plato, but I think it is wrong. Personally, I think beauty, or at least an important component of it, is something like an experience of success of discovering order in perception. If there is too much order, there is nothing to discover, and it is getting boring. To little order, and you get confusion. In the middle, there is a beauty-zone. It also depends on your previous knowledge, so it is individually different and may also differ in the same person at different times.
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Thank you, Nannus. I appreciate your detailed response and I agree with your views.
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Excellent.
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Thank you. Rhossili is a prime resource for sand patterns. They always seem to take different forms on each visit.
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