The land artist claims to swim through "baltic" cold waters to create stunning icy portraits.

David Popa, who regularly goes viral for his incredible works of art, has revealed the tough conditions faced to create each masterpiece.

After moving to Finland, the New York City native started experimenting with various natural materials and began using ice in a bid to "push the limits" of art in nature.

Now, the 30-year-old has unveiled his latest gallery-worthy portrait in a breathtaking clip, racking up 1.1 million views and over 26,100 likes on Instagram.

"You can never fully anticipate what you will find day-to-day, as the ice is always in a state of flux," David, who has two children, Isabelle, 5, and Gabriel, 2, said.

"Whether it's snow piling on top of it during a storm or fracturing and drifting away on warmer days, it's, for this reason, that I have to create my work in a very small window of time.

"Nearly every time, unplanned events occur such as the ice completely fracturing in the middle of the creation, leaving me to create work in scattered fragments.

"From finishing the work in very harsh physical conditions to the resistance in my mind telling me to quit, the result is always keeping rewarding and nature finds a way of making the work better than I could have anticipated."

David typically arrives early in the morning and starts with light flying his drone to see what kind of textures and shapes are forming, before taking photographs of the locations he thinks may have potential.

He then places a dry suit over his clothes in order to enter the frozen waters if needed, and then uses various apps on his phone to overlay different photo references.

Besides using ice, he also uses natural materials such as charcoal and soil in a spray can to create the impressive depth of the portraits, often spending up to five hours on each piece.

Speaking about the history behind these materials, he said: "[I use] natural pigments which would have been used thousands of years ago for the earliest cave paintings.

"I mix them with water and spray [the ice] with a modified garden sprayer or apply with a brush while using the existing textures of the location to act as proportion guides for my work."

In the clip, he documents the breathtaking process of painting a woman's face onto two shards of ice.

He begins by walking across the two floating spectacles while steadying his pace and making the final touches.

As the camera zooms out, various other shards of ice can be seen floating upon the icy waters.

Users were left in awe at the land artist's talents, rushing to the comments to share their thoughts.

One user said: "Breathtaking."

”Absolutely incredible and beautiful,” said someone else.

A third person said: “Beyond awesome.”

”Things do fall apart into order to fall into place,” another viewer added.

”What you're doing is inspiring, keep that up please," Joe Hammdan commented.

David added: "Most recently, I travelled deep into the wilderness of Norway to make two new pieces, but sometimes I have to tell myself that I don't need to go that far to create great work.

"I have found that in order to produce my best work, I need a few hyper-focused weeks during the year where all I do is immerse myself in nature and the project I'm working on.

"This works far better than sporadically working on projects, where I am unavailable physically and emotionally for my family."

The land artist claims to swim through "baltic" cold waters to create stunning icy portraits.

David Popa, who regularly goes viral for his incredible works of art, has revealed the tough conditions faced to create each masterpiece.

After moving to Finland, the New York City native started experimenting with various natural materials and began using ice in a bid to "push the limits" of art in nature.

Now, the 30-year-old has unveiled his latest gallery-worthy portrait in a breathtaking clip, racking up 1.1 million views and over 26,100 likes on Instagram.

"You can never fully anticipate what you will find day-to-day, as the ice is always in a state of flux," David, who has two children, Isabelle, 5, and Gabriel, 2, told NeedToKnow.online.

"Whether it's snow piling on top of it during a storm or fracturing and drifting away on warmer days, it's, for this reason, that I have to create my work in a very small window of time.

"Nearly every time, unplanned events occur such as the ice completely fracturing in the middle of the creation, leaving me to create work in scattered fragments.

"From finishing the work in very harsh physical conditions to the resistance in my mind telling me to quit, the result is always keeping rewarding and nature finds a way of making the work better than I could have anticipated."

David typically arrives early in the morning and starts with light flying his drone to see what kind of textures and shapes are forming, before taking photographs of the locations he thinks may have potential.

He then places a dry suit over his clothes in order to enter the frozen waters if needed, and then uses various apps on his phone to overlay different photo references.

Besides using ice, he also uses natural materials such as charcoal and soil in a spray can to create the impressive depth of the portraits, often spending up to five hours on each piece.

Speaking about the history behind these materials, he said: "[I use] natural pigments which would have been used thousands of years ago for the earliest cave paintings.

"I mix them with water and spray [the ice] with a modified garden sprayer or apply with a brush while using the existing textures of the location to act as proportion guides for my work."

In the clip, he documents the breathtaking process of painting a woman's face onto two shards of ice.

He begins by walking across the two floating spectacles while steadying his pace and making the final touches.

As the camera zooms out, various other shards of ice can be seen floating upon the icy waters.

Users were left in awe at the land artist's talents, rushing to the comments to share their thoughts.

One user said: "Breathtaking."

”Absolutely incredible and beautiful,” said someone else.

A third person said: “Beyond awesome.”

”Things do fall apart into order to fall into place,” another viewer added.

”What you're doing is inspiring, keep that up please," Joe Hammdan commented.

David added: "Most recently, I travelled deep into the wilderness of Norway to make two new pieces, but sometimes I have to tell myself that I don't need to go that far to create great work.

"I have found that in order to produce my best work, I need a few hyper-focused weeks during the year where all I do is immerse myself in nature and the project I'm working on.

"This works far better than sporadically working on projects, where I am unavailable physically and emotionally for my family."