I used to tell people, “I paint rocks”, but when everyone took that to mean that I was painting on rocks, I changed it to “I’m painting portraits of pebbles”, quite a different thing!
I have always been a pebble picker-upper. I can’t resist rolling the smooth shapes of ocean-washed pebbles around in the palm of my hand, they are like worry beads. And many have exciting surface designs as well.
To keep myself busy during the long hours of the Culture Crawl I took some of these pebbles to my studio and started sketching them.
Greenish Dallasite stones from Dallas Rd. in Victoria on Vancouver Island, BC. 
Watercolour sketch of one of the pebbles, done while sitting in my studio during the Eastside Culture Crawl in Vancouver. The colour isn’t quite right but I love the lines of its design.
Two unique stones with an interesting surface design from Costa Rica. 
The other side of the top stone is interesting too. This is my first getting-to-know-you watercolour sketch of the back and front of the Costa Rican stone.
Red and grey pebbles on a slightly greenish rock in Freshwater East in Wales. 
Watercolour of pebbles from the beach at Freshwater East in Wales. At the bottom is a real pebble. 
More of the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Shapes and Designs.
Batz Gallery 
Well Elizabeth, who’d have thought about painting pebbles but you’ve shown their beauty and endless variety. superb
Pebbles are really good about posing for me – I adore them!
LOL, they certainly don’t move much, earthquakes notwithstanding 😊
I do like your rock paintings. The colors are amazing and I like how you’ve captured movement and flow, even though rocks are probably the most stationary items one could find 🙂 You might think me crass but when I see these pictures I immediately thought they’d be beautiful silk scarves.
When I started working, my dream job would have been to be a fabric designer, but the bulk of fabric printing was done in England at the time which would have been too big a move. I did have an upholsterer in during the first weekend of the Crawl, and she commented that she would love to see some of my photo patterns put on soft furniture.
One never knows where paths go nowadays!
These are beautiful. I really like the red and blue ones
I have masses of photos of the rock formations at that beach – it was so beautiful seeing masses of red and blue rocks…
It was very scenic and loved our walk