Antalya artist Süleyman Sarı creates Italy's Seneca award portrait with 28,400 pebbles, completed in five months

Antalya artist Süleyman Sarı creates Seneca award portrait in Italy with 28,400 pebbles

Antalya artist Süleyman Sarı, who has been creating works with natural pebbles for 34 years, made a portrait of the Roman philosopher Seneca—the grand prize of the Lucius Annaeus Seneca International Academic Awards in Bari, Italy—with 28,400 stones measuring 1–3 millimeters. Sarı personally presented the award to its recipient at the ceremony.

Süleyman Sarı, a pebble artist living in Antalya, designed the grand prize for an international awards ceremony held in Italy using natural pebbles. Sarı prepared a portrait of the Roman philosopher Seneca for the Lucius Annaeus Seneca International Academic Awards for Contemporary Literature, organized by the Academy of Art and Philosophical Sciences in Bari, completing the work in about five months by placing 28,400 natural pebbles, each measuring between 1 and 3 millimeters, one by one.

The 42-by-32-centimeter portrait was presented as the organization’s grand prize, called “Premio Metamorfosi Creativa” (Creative Transformation Award). Invited to the ceremony with his wife, Nejla Sarı, the artist was honored by the academy’s president, Dr. Massimo Massa, and personally presented the grand prize he had designed to its recipient. Four other works Sarı brought with him were also exhibited at a historic castle in Bari.

Seneca portrait prepared by Süleyman Sarı with 28,400 natural pebbles

“I was deeply honored to represent Türkiye”

Sarı said he began the work at the organizers’ request: “I was asked to create an image of Seneca measuring 42 by 32 centimeters. I had to work very meticulously because I wanted to introduce my art to the world.” The artist said he explained at the ceremony that he had developed the technique himself and wanted to spread it around the world. “My work, which I completed in five months, attracted great interest from art lovers in Italy. I was deeply honored to represent Türkiye,” he said.

34 years of “unaltered” pebble art

Sarı first encountered stones as a child while apprenticing under his master and has been creating works for 34 years without altering the structure or color of the pebbles he collects from beaches. Describing himself as an “unaltered micro-natural pebble artist,” he works by placing the stones one by one in his home studio. Sarı has previously produced a horse painting made of 170,000 stones that took 13 months to complete, as well as the “Mythological Mediterranean Gods” series, each work of which consists of around 60,000 stones. His works have been exhibited in many provinces across Türkiye and in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Photos: AA

Antalya artist Süleyman Sarı creates Seneca award portrait in Italy with 28,400 pebbles