Another large ice sculpture was added in Confederation Park during Winterlude. This year marks the centennial of the Battle Of Vimy Ridge during the First World War. The battle, a key moment in Canadian history, raged between April 9th to 12th, 1917, and resulted in Canadian troops taking the ridge from German soldiers. The large memorial standing today on the battlefield in France is incorporated into this ice sculpture with a maple leaf. An icy variant on one of the statues the memorial's designer, Walter Allward, placed among that memorial, titled Canada Bereft, stands before the main sculpture. I took these shots on two different days; the last three shots were taken after we had some snow.
Another beautiful series, William !
ReplyDeleteSuch fantastic artistry!
ReplyDeleteThose are real beauties.
ReplyDeleteJust Googled the Vimy Ridge memorial William, it's hauntingly beautiful. Very lovely tribute in ice here.
ReplyDeleteSo interesting to learn Canadian history through ice sculptures.
ReplyDeleteVIMY. interesting.
Janis
GDP
These are really lovely.
ReplyDeleteAn impressive memorial!
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful and delicate!
ReplyDeleteso pretty. that is the polar bear, right? ( ;
ReplyDelete@Karl: thank you!
ReplyDelete@Halcyon: indeed.
@Marianne: thanks!
@Grace: I would love to see Vimy someday.
@Janis: yes it is.
@Orvokki: thank you.
@Marleen: it is.
@Merisi: definitely.
@Beth: yes, I wanted a shot with the polar bear in the foreground and the Vimy sculpture in the background. I liked having the worker blowing snow off the sculpture too.
Very neat carvings, wish I was that good
ReplyDeletea beautiful tribute!
ReplyDeleteThanks William
ReplyDeleteTopics for carvings ae unlimited. It's nice to see the vimy Ridge sculpture.
ReplyDeleteThat is very impressive.
ReplyDelete@Bill: I know I'm not!
ReplyDelete@Tanya: indeed.
@Cloudia: you're welcome.
@Red: it is, yes.
@Sharon: I agree.
It must be so beautiful to see up close I real. All beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing.
What a beautiful tribute!
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible that someone can copy such a memorial in ice. What a fantastic craftsman!
ReplyDeleteLovely tribute, William!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I have visited the memorial at Vimy three times now; it is breathtaking - and an emotional experience. I think the carving you show represents Canada, weeping for her lost youths?
ReplyDeleteSuch pretty designs that seem to create a magical world in this wintry setting. Love the first one especially.
ReplyDeleteThank you for showing these, William!
ReplyDelete@Carolann: you're welcome.
ReplyDelete@Norma: indeed!
@Lowell: it's great work.
@Linda: I think so, yes.
@Mike: I'd love to see it myself. Yes, that's one and the same. Allward's plaster originals of his Memorial statues are in the War Museum, and that particular one is the one that I seem to gravitate most towards.
@Gemma: thank you!
@RedPat: you're welcome!
Wall to wall ice and snow plus all the artistic opportunities it brings . Didn't realize how much creativity it offers. There's a lot to learn if I took the time to watch CDP posts.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful series with incredible ice sculptures. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI was gonna say. . . Did it snow or something? :-)
ReplyDeleteVery cool and no pun intended :)
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful ice sculpture with so much meaning to Canada.
ReplyDelete@Julia: this festival really brings out a lot of creativity.
ReplyDelete@Bill: you're welcome!
@Revrunner: lots of snow, and I doubt we're done with snowfalls for this season.
@Denise: very cool indeed!
@Pamela: I thought it was very fitting for this year.
I could repeat everything that has been said, but superb will do.
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing this (very nice!) and other memorials you've shown I wonder if the U.S. has any equivalent World War I memorials. I can't say that I've seen it comemmorated much.
ReplyDeleteThey are amaziing!!!
ReplyDeleteReally nice! We couldn't do that here this winter. It's unusually warm.
ReplyDeleteJust so beautiful ...
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
@Mari: I certainly think so.
ReplyDelete@Kay: the US wasn't in that war for too long.
@Jennifer: I certainly think so.
@Linda: here winter is quite friendly to the ice carver.
@Jan: I think so too.