The rise in popularity of finding and hiding painted rocks during lockdown has been huge. One local artist has captivated the Glenmore Park community with his amazing, hand painted rock designs. His name is David Stanley.
Shortly after lockdown, David began painting and hiding rocks daily around Blue Hills Wetlands. Those who have been lucky to find his designs whilst doing their exercise liken it to finding treasure. The 100,000 strong NSW Rocks Facebook members also wait in anticipation each day to see what designs will be on offer to be found.
“I have been an artist on and off in a professional sense for about fifty years” said David to the Glenmore Gazette.
“I began as a survey draftsman, using pen and ink to draw plans and maps. Next, I worked as a biological illustrator in the Zoological Department of The School of Biological Sciences at Sydney University. This work was more ‘artistic’ in nature, being mostly freehand drawings of specimens, though it was still highly technical. After teaching primary school for just two years in the classroom, I was deployed as a teacher/illustrator with the Department of Education illustrating distance education learning materials. This together with some additional freelance work in educational illustration and picture books meant more opportunity for imaginative work over the thirty years prior to retirement” he reflected.
David has been drawing since early childhood and he loved making things. Making something from scratch required design and designs are developed through drawing. His art interests were always related to describing, telling a story, and designing which lead to illustration.
Mr. Stanley’s painted rock design ideas come from his years as an illustrator and the time to paint them differs, “The time varies, some are small and simple fifteen minutes as a guess. Others if they become especially interestingly distracting, take more time than I could admit to myself. All-up in lieu of a night’s television.
Apart from the simple joy of drawing and painting, the participation in a community project has many positives. Only the intent matters, and people from all ages and backgrounds are found, making, hiding, and hunting objects that they have invested some time, care, and affection into producing. This is all for someone else”.
His current artwork remains graphic work on paper and wood-art. This includes small scale carving and sculptural works, especially the carving of Welsh love spoons, of the more intricate kind.
For more information about David’s artwork, visit his blog at www.whimsicalwood.blog, Instagram at @whimsicalwood49-art and Facebook at @whimsicalwood49.