Andy Goldsworthy in Leaning into the Wind–Andy Goldsworthy (Thomas Riedelsheimer/Magnolia Pictures)

Since German director Thomas Riedelsheimer’s absorbing biographical and artistic introduction Rivers and Tides–Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (2001), the British-born, site-specific sculptor Goldsworthy has garnered even more fans around the world. In Leaning Into The Wind: Andy Goldsworthy Riedelsheimer updates how life, family, and aging (the artist is now 62) have influenced his environmental art. As Goldsworthy uses his body more and extends his nature rambles far beyond his favorite Scottish landscapes, Riedelsheimer delicately documents his recent work, from constructing permanent installations to making those that are seasonally temporary, and creating ones so fleeting they can only be seen by others through this film, all accompanied by guitarist Fred Frith’s gentle score.

In the earlier film, Goldsworthy was entrenched in the rural area around his homestead full of children, but now he briefly relates his travails of divorce, death, a second marriage, and new family. He’s now grateful to be assisted by his adult daughter, artist Holly, who helps with complex constructions as he communes with changing nature for inspiration.

While he’s seen extending the stones in “Storm King Wall,” at the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York, his success has brought larger commissions further afield. Before, Goldsworthy constructed a temporary arch of Canadian ice slabs. Now, we see his related permanent installations, including two more in the United States. “Stone Sea” (2012) at the Saint Louis Art Museum, requires detailed advance drawings to reinterpret the city’s iconic symbol, the Gateway Arch, with a network of 25, 10-feet-high, ancient-looking arches made up of 300 tons of Missouri limestone. At the De Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, “Drawn Stone” (2005) is based on the area’s geology, with an extensive crack through hewn rocks that conveniently provides seating.

Though he’s seen in African, European, and South American locales as well, he talks most about feeling rooted in farms, where he worked before attending art school. His love of these environs comes through as he develops four related works for the permanent collection of the Jupiter Artland Sculpture Park in Edinburgh, not far from his home. “Stone Coppice” is among his works meant to be experienced differently over time, as boulders, sheared for the project, are integrated into trees. Most striking is to see father and daughter diligently develop “Clay Tree Wall” from the selection and transportation of a large downed limb, to digging out mud, carefully wrapping each branch with clay, then attaching them on a new wall. He’s as comfortable with large, noisy construction equipment as he is with grazing sheep.

What seems closest to Goldsworthy’s heart are the pieces he creates to disappear, either eventually or immediately. Snaking through the Presidio forest of San Francisco, the Eucalyptus branches in “Wood Line” (2011) will ultimately decompose into the earth. Others are gorgeous and will make this leisurely film appeal to younger audiences who may be inspired to imitate his techniques and use of nature’s hues, like paint on a canvas.

Extolling the fall colors found near his house on particular trees he closely observes over time, he carefully wraps his fingers in red leaves and dips them in a rushing brook until each brilliant sliver dances off and through the current. He stuffs his mouth with red leaves, or yellow leaves, then spits them into the wind—an ephemeral art work best captured by Riedelsheimer in repeated slow motion. By the conclusion, his body is as much the artistic subject as a dancer’s, with the wind at the top of a hill determining the choreography (see photo above).

Last year, Sam Wainwright Douglas’s Through the Repellent Fence featured the work of the indigenous art collective Postcommodity. Their community-participatory productions contrast with the intrusive impact on the landscape and environment of the “Land Art” movement, exemplified by Robert Smithson, that permanently adds large scale natural elements onto isolated settings. Just by alternative example, the two films on Goldsworthy are beautiful paeans to exquisite alternatives for harmoniously blending art with nature.