The Jersey Sandman is in Bermuda, but don’t worry he won’t be putting anyone to sleep.Andy Coutanche is an internationally known beach artist who is in Bermuda to lead workshops for the Beach Art Festival on Saturday.Beach artists use simple implements like rakes and sticks to create designs in the sand. His work has been featured in publications in the US and the UK. In 2011 he helped to organise the first World Beach Art Championships in the British Channel Island of Jersey.“It started really simply,” said Mr Coutanche who is a carpenter and joiner by trade. “I was on the beach in Jersey with my brother and I was trying to explain the design of a boat keel. So I sketched it in the sand.”He liked the look of the design so much that it spurred a new hobby — beach art. His early inspirations were the mysterious crop circles that often appear in British fields, and also a classic Led Zeppelin box set cover.“I started with small, simple patterns but since then the patterns have progressed quite rapidly and became more intricate each time I created one,” he said.At the World Championships he raked out an enormous and intricate set of curlicues.“I have been adding 3D effects and shading to the more recent designs,” he said. “I do not have any plans or ideas when I head down to the beach, I just walk on the sand and start raking, working with the natural flow of the beach. I don’t use any string, measurements or stencils for any of the sand art I do; it’s all totally free-hand. It’s just made up as I go along.”He said the World Championships caught a lot of attention and were sponsored by the Jersey Department of Tourism. They had about 80 artists and about 400 spectators. The event was covered by BBC television.Now he is often asked by corporations, organisations and individuals to sketch logos or messages in the sand. One of the most unusual things he did might be a marriage proposal for two skydivers.“It said: ‘Will you marry me, Louise?’ The man jumped out of the plane and then when his girlfriend followed, she saw the message in the sand. When she hit the ground she just sat there on the beach going: ‘Oh my God ... oh my God’. She did say yes. She was crying. He ran over with some flowers and a ring. I’m going to be doing another proposal like that soon.”He sometimes leads team-building exercises with beach art. He once helped a group create their company’s quick response code in the sand.“It didn’t quite work because they didn’t follow the pattern in one place,” he said. “I think they went off for lunch and had a few drinks. Otherwise it would have been a world record for the largest scannable QR code.”To make the designs he uses a bamboo stick and his great grandfather’s 100-year-old rake.“It had a really long handle,” he said. “I went to New Zealand recently and had to cut off the handle because I didn’t think the airport security would look too kindly on that. I put a new handle on it when I got to New Zealand.”The joy and sorrow of beach art is that it is very transient. The tide comes in after a few hours and the design is gone forever.“You know the tide is going to happen,” he said. “For the first year I never stayed around to watch them get washed away. Now I am more comfortable with watching the designs wash away. The more annoying thing is when people run across it. I’ve done a couple where people played football in the middle, when they had the whole beach to play on.”The workshops will be tomorrow and Friday at Horseshoe Bay from 4pm to 6pm.The Beach Art Festival takes place Saturday from 9am to 12pm on beaches all over the Island. For more information or to reserve a spot, e-mail Nicky Gurret: gurret@northrock.bm or Match@northrock.bm.