Painted pebbles...

Whilst I didn’t get around to doing much of the sketching I promised my inner artist whilst I was in Wales, I did spend a lot time looking for pebbles.

I know it ain't art but it’s been in my head to paint some pebbles for a while now. I’m not quite sure why, sometimes I seem to have no choice in these matters. The idea pops into my head and then – at some future point – I find myself doing it. Of course we all painted rocks as children, didn’t we? Finding our pebble and then painting it with whatever took our fancy - bright blue, yellow and red powder paints splattered all over the stony surface in a variety of suns, flowers and fishes - only to be left outside to wash and fade in the rain.

I’m obviously in something of second childhood, wandering the beaches of North Wales looking for a pebble to paint, and I was rather hoping that the pebble itself might inspire me; calling out ‘look I’m a fish’ or maybe ‘there’s a dragon hiding inside my stony heart’. As it happened all the pebbles looked pretty much the same, no screaming and crying about the entities to be found hidden inside them, so it was up to me and the paint to turn them into something more whimsical.

I was hoping for something a bit tribal, mystical even. As it worked out two of the pebbles seemed to turn themselves into owls and the other into a cat without too much interference from me. I'm not sure if these fun or tacky, but I'm not too unhappy with the way they turned out. I may even make some others perhaps in bright blues, yellows and reds - a variety of suns, flowers and fishes – tribal of course.