The painted rock movement - Find, share, rehide

Have you ever found a painted rock? If you have, chances are it had a facebook group and a postcode on the back.

Here in South Australia, we have a 'SA Rocks' facebook group, where rock drops and finds are  shared through photos and posts, by rock hunters and painters alike.

We are only new to the concept, but the phenomenon has been in existence for a while, and active in other states of the country.

My mum, being the artist she is, has embraced it head on. She has painted at least a hundred rocks and distributed them far and wide, including taking some to drop in Tassie on a recent trip, with our local postcode on them. I haven't seen these shared on the facebook group though.

Kids love finding the coloured rocks, and it gets them active and engaged in an activity out in nature, with rock drops mainly being in playgrounds, parks and public attractions.

Just yesterday, Mum, with my help, ran a rock painting session for the  public library as part of their school holiday activities. The kids loved painting their own rocks and learning about how they can hide and find rocks as part of the painted rock movement. Even the adults sat down to be creative as well. It is quite addictive, and a fabulous way to let off some creative steam!

We use acrylic paint to paint rocks and seal them with clear varnish to protect the paintwork from the elements of the weather. Posca pens are a popular medium for decorating rocks also.

There are many talented rock painters out there and it is such a creative inspiration to see what other artists are doing.

Here are the links to some of the countries facebook rock groups.

VIC rocks
SA Rocks
NSW rocks
QLD rocks
WA rocks

Let the hunting, hiding, posting a pic, or creating begin!

My painting efforts at the library session

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Affirmation bookmarks, for girls

My creativity didn't die with the end of the recent ICAD challenge. With my girls finding a love for reading, (Izzy, Harry Potter and Summer, Roald Dahl) I have inspired to make bookmarks featuring beautiful affirmations. Affirmations for girls.

I wish I had such soft and beautiful words on bookmarks when I was a girl.

With the current situation in the media, on how girls and women are talked about and to, this is a timely project.

I have made about 15 of them, and have more on the go. We only need so many bookmarks, so I have decided to leave some at the library to giveaway. The positive feedback has been encouraging when I shared these on social media, so this may be something I will continue.

I found a great list of affirmations for girls at the Inner Rainbow Project, a website dedicated to empowering girls in todays world.

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Index card a day - Week 6

36. Thesaurus

37. Botanical 

Inspired by the crabapple tree near my front door, it is all but bare now in it's winter sleep

38. Clue

Professor Plum, in the library with a dagger? A quick pencil drawing saves the day again.

39. Color chart. 

Water colour and sharpie

40. Blueprint

Blueprint is basically a blue background with white diagram. Plenty of blue from paint, paint chips, fabric and a dodgy, sewn white cotton house block plan.

41. Card catalog

A creative take on a library catalogue card. I was reading this novel at the time.

42. Keychain or charm

Pencil and paint chip

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ICAD 2019 - Week 3

day 15 - storm

Torn paper, paint chips and cloth

day 16 - chandelier

Water colour, gold and silver sharpie

day 17 - wood or bench
This one I went out to our paperbark tree and stripped off some of the bark to create a scene.

Day 18 - Yearbook

Day 19 - yellow
This card incorporates a range of different mediums. Origami paper, cloth, water colour, sharpie and colour pencil!

Day 20 - Vitrina
The paint chips are really getting a work out.

Day 21 - guitar

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ICAD 2019 - Week 1

Just like the last time I took part in the Index Card a Day challenge, I am letting the daily prompts lead my creativity each day.

Title card for 2019

I used an old calendar picture of the Tantanoola cottage gardens for the background. Drew a picket fence, complete with letter box and gate on plain paper, then used a stanley knife for cutting out.

Lyric from the Peppermint twist song painted onto card

I achieved this fabulous colour by finely slicing a beetroot and dragging it across the card. Then grating the beetroot to make the pattern. 

Watercolour paint. I splotched on some runny paint on the top half of the card, then folded it to make a reflected impression.

Fine sharpie and red texta. 

There's a palette of autumn leaves in the garden. I picked some and drew them in 6B pencil onto autumny coloured paint chips, then glued to index card.

Watercolour paint. I used black for 'cherry baby', then wiped the paint off so it faded. I found some of the kids stencils among the mess that is their play shelves and added the cherries.

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Fortune favours the bold

Did you see the Bohemian Rhapsody film yet? I've seen it twice, and I would watch it for a third time!

If you have seen it, you might remember the line when Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury) says "You will always be known as the man who lost Queen". Well our small South Australian town just became "the town that lost a Fin Dac mural".

Yes! Fin Dac had offered to come to our town and paint a free mural on a two story building at the entrance of our main street. Fin Dac is an irish artist, based in London, known for his murals of ladies. He has murals  all over the world including Spain, London, New Zealand, Melbourne and Adelaide. He had offered to come to our sleepy little town, but due to negative feedback and not being able to find an alternative building, the offer was declined. 

I was disappointed to say the least, devo actually and a little disillusioned as to the future of our town. If we can't get people to be inspired to stop, and this mural screamed stop and pay attention, what future is there for our youngert generation. 

I saw this as a coup, this would put our town on the map. I imagined tourists coming around the roundabout and being in awe of the mural of a Chinese lady in formal dress, inspiring them to stop. To stop and spend some money in our town.

The Fin Dac proposed mural. it would have sat next to an existing mural of historic Millicent. The past and the future in one place. You know I didn't like it at first, but I looked past the subject and saw how amazing this was for our town. I am so sad this will not feature here.

It was suggested that we opt for local artists, for a more traditional theme, something that related to us. Don't get me wrong, I am all for local artists. My own mum has been one of them for the last 25 years. Anyone who went to a Nangula market in the nineties probably bought something of hers, and still has it lurking somewhere in their home. I do know though, sorry mum, and to other local artists, who I would rather have paint that building. In fact, this may have well brought our local artists to light, not forgetting a local artist had been lined up to assist Fin, what an opportunity for a local, and the progression of their own art.

Another suggestion was something to do with farming. Well HELLO!, we are barely managing to keep our saleyards open! I am sure anyone who has driven 100km from Kingston, or 50km from Mount Gambier can clearly see they are in farming country. I don't think we need to portray that on a building.

As for the suggestion of depicting something local, like the vineyards at Penola, or our fishing villages of the Limestone Coast, I call bah humbug! Yes we are proudly part of the limestone coast, but as a town struggling to keep pubs open and shopfronts full, we want people to stop here, in Millicent. We want them to be inspired to stop, to spend money in town, to visit the art gallery, to visit local artists, to visit the tourist visitor centre where they can purchase local art, local photography and other wares. To walk through our BRILLIANT museum, see our history. While there we don't want them to go straight to the counter and ask "where are the wineries?", "where are the coastal towns?", and see them drive away. We want them to stay, for a coffee, for a meal, for a night! 

To quote another Bohemian Rhapsody, and the genius that is Freddie Mercury (looked how it turned out for him, not the dead part, the dead famous part), "Fortune favours the bold". 

I wish my town was more bold. I wish their minds would open to the possibilities. I wish they had set aside their reservations about the subject matter, and saw what this painting would have done for Millicent. Thought about (pardon the pun) the big picture. The Fin Dac would have complimented the other street art we already have perfectly. We could have marketed ourselves as the town with amazing art on it's buildings, including international artists. 

So in closing maybe we should just paint a big sheep there, for our farming, forgetting we can hardly sustain our saleyards. Because the way I see it, it represents our town perfectly. We are like sheep, we go with the expected flow. We don't stray down the path of individuality, we stay with the mob. Because it's safer there, it's what we know, and we don't have to deal with change. 

If only we could be more bold. Imagine the possibilities.

"The water goddess", painted by Mimby Jones Robinson, on one of our old buildings. 

ICAD 2016 - The ninth and final week

The final week for ICAD 2016, was way back on the last week in July! 

I have finally done the last two prompts I hadn't gotten around to doing. We were rather busy at the end of July, with a gym concert and a trip to the snow, and the index card a day challenge was a casualty. 

I posted my cards every week, so to dot all the I's, here is that last week of prompts, almost three months late!

• Week 1 
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7
• Week 8

Week 9 

#57 Stickers

#58 Graffiti

#59 Hopscotch

#60 Sorbet

 

#61 Path

ICAD 2016 - Week 8

ICAD #50 Paisley

ICAD #51 purple or violet
Purple fingerprints made into balloons

ICAD #52 staircase

ICAD #53 fortune
I was thinking big dollar signs for this one, with glitter. changed my mind and went with fortune telling. Don't ask me what the Ace of Cups means, I have no idea! Ever had your fortune told? I haven't, but I am curious. My extent is reading the stars signs in the local rag. 

ICAD #54 aquarium.
This was a card I prepared a couple of weeks ago. Lime green background with orange blotches. When I looked at it while thinking about this prompt, the orange blotches were asking to be turned into fish.

ICAD #55 Olympics
I am looking forward to the Olympics. I am hoping the Izzy gets to see the gymnastics on the telly, even more so, hoping it is a peaceful Olympic Games. 

ICAD #56 text or texture
I went with texture with this one. I found a scrap of crosstitch fabric, and other bits and bobs from my craft box. I first started crosstitching when I was pregnant with my first. I have several crosstitich samplers framed on the walls that are 25 years old! The one I was doing when he was born is one of those and is so special to me. 

ICAD 2016 Week 4

ICAD #22 Neon sign

ICAD #23 winter

ICAD #24 magenta

ICAD #25 song

ICAD #26 space invaders

ICAD #27 motel
Quite possibly the worst landscape ever done in the history or art. In the world.

ICAD #28 Cats or dogs