Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

Remy and Paul, who sculpt stories from sand, draw inspiration from life in Bulgaria

Photo: Remy and Paul Hoggard

They met 20 years ago in a Belgian sand sculpture park. He was sculpting a 19-meter deity and she was creating a goddess from sand. They quickly found out they are soulmates and have been inseparable ever since. Remy and Paul Hoggard are among the hundreds of artists on the planet who are professionally engaged in sand sculpture. They receive invitations from all over the planet and to this date the art team has toured over 30 countries.


He is English and she is Dutch, but they choose to live in Bulgaria. They have a house and some land here. When they are not creating miracles out of sand, they take care of their farm in the village of Mihailovo near Stara Zagora.

They speak Bulgarian well and claim that this country is their home, the place where they always return to "recharge the batteries". Paul says that the Covid-pandemic and the isolation caused by the quarantine made them rethink their lifestyle.


The art couple, which have created thousands of sand sculptures all over the world and won the recognition of the Queen of England, draw inspiration from life in Bulgaria. Recently, on the occasion of 150 years after the death of Bulgaria's national hero Vasil Levski, the sculptors greeted the citizens of Burgas with a magnificent three-dimensional sand face of the Apostle of Freedom. The response was incredible - children and adults were all fascinated by the sand sculpture on the beach of Burgas and some were moved to tears.


Remy and Paul have a number of future projects in Bulgaria, which include a sand academy, where they will conduct workshops for children and adolescents.

English: Al. Markov

Photos and video: Remy and Paul Hoggard




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Bulgarians in Cyprus bask in the old-time friendship of the locals

The Bulgarian cultural association in Cyprus is named after a renowned Bulgarian revolutionary, one of the organizers of the April Uprising of 1876 – Atanas Shabanov from Koprivshitsa. “We wanted the association to bear the name of a Bulgarian..

updated on 12/11/23 11:22 AM

Veska Cherneva and her paper snowflakes

As soon as the first snow is in the air, Veska Cherneva gets down to work. Using a simple pair of scissors and paper, she has cut out more than 5,500 beautiful snowflakes. As a matter of fact, she says her life has always been about… snow...

published on 12/5/23 1:22 PM

Milena Selimi loves Bulgaria and translates Georgi Gospodinov’s books

Albanian writer, translator and public figure Milena Selimi, who has been the representative of the Bulgarians in the Committee of National Minorities in Albania since June 2023, comes from a Bulgarian-Albanian family. Since 1964, her..

published on 11/27/23 5:22 PM