
Sandpainting by Andrew Clemens and John Adams
Sold for $5–7 in the 19th century, their paintings now reach 40-50 thousand dollars at auctions. Iowa sand artists Andrew Clemens and John Adams, became famous for their unique sandpainting. To create such painting the artists inserted the presorted grains of sand into small glass drug bottles using a homemade tools formed out of hickory sticks and florists wire. John Adams was a railroad man, who lived just upriver from and became familiar with Clemens. Unlike Clemens, he attempted complex landscapes.
Andrew Clemens was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on January 29, 1857. At a young age Andrew suffered encephalitis which caused his lifelong deafness. He attended the Iowa State School for the Deaf and Dumb. Clemens would collect naturally colored grains of sand at Pictured Rocks, where sandstone was naturally colored by iron and mineral staining. Clemens separated the sand grains into piles, by color, and used them to form the basis for his art.
(more…)






