If you’re a friend of mine in real life or through social media, you likely know by now that I’ve been making paint from rocks. And by extension, that means, paintings made from rocks. It’s not painting ON rocks.
Paint & Paintings Made from Rocks
Most of the visitors to my website arrive here after doing a search for some thing or other, but it’s hard to know what exactly they’re searching for. I hope they come looking for me or my work or blog stories, but sometimes they got here by accident.
When THAT happens, I hope that they poke around for a little while and become interested enough to stay a little longer. Are you one of those accidental travelers? If so, let me know what brought you here.
Getting Found on Google
To help ensure people find what they’re looking for, or come here looking for the types of things I post, I try to use phrases and words that a person might use if they’ve put in a request to Google (or any other search engine).
One way I do that is to try out phrases myself and see what comes up in a search. So, I put in ‘paintings made from rocks’. What comes up? A bunch of images and posts about painting ON rocks.
That is not what I wanted. It probably isn’t what anyone else wants either when they use that phrase. So by making this post, I hope one day this blog will start turning up in those searches, and that people will find my paintings made from rocks. It’s a lot easier to find my site if you search for ‘making paint from rocks’, but those posts focus on the paint, not the artwork.
Here’s another painting made from rocks, just to help plant the phrase in Google’s brain:
I rarely use only the rocks for my pigment source, though, because I need white. And I like green. For green, I need blue and yellow, as well. So, I buy the titanium white and lapis blue powders I need to make that paint, and I make yellow from garden thyme. To get the green, I mix the blue and yellow.
Rock art sites in Arkansas
Art made on rocks does interest me, though, especially ancient art. I’d love to go see the cave art in Spain and other European countries. But did you know we have paleo art right here in Arkansas?
Visiting some of the sites of prehistoric rock art in Arkansas is on my list of field trips I’d like to make. The topic has always interested me, and until I started making paint from the rocks of Wild Ozark, I didn’t even know there were places here with this ancient art.
Petroglyphs are etched or chipped into rocks, some are painted petroglyphs and some are just painted onto the rock walls inside of bluffs or caves.
If you’d like to take a field trip with me to see this cave and rock art, join my event on FB. If you’re not on FB, then email me so I can let you know when I’m going.
More Resources for Paleolithic Art on Rocks
https://archeology.uark.edu/rockart/index.html?pageName=How%20are%20pictographs%20made?
https://www.arkansas.com/historic/indian-rock-cave-and-trail
More on Pigments & Paintings made From Rocks
https://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/early.html
My paintings: https://www.wildozark.com/available-original-art-by-madison-woods/
How I make my watercolor paints: (sorry, no tutorial yet on making the oil paints, but everything until the binder is the same) https://www.wildozark.com/paint-from-rock-dust/
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Author/Artist Info
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I make Paleo Paints from the lightfast pigments foraged from Madison county, Arkansas, creating under the pseudonym Madison Woods. Most of the colors I use comes from rocks gathered from our own creeks here at Wild Ozark. I outsource titanium for white, lapis for blue, and grow garden thyme for yellow.
My inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction and regeneration. My work is a partnership with the land. Immersing in her color, absorbing inspiration, taking communion. A painting begins with a foray to collect rocks, soot and bone. Each pigment, alone a portrayal of beauty, combined in a painting, becomes a whole reflection of the very soul of the Ozarks.
My Portfolio is HERE
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I’m also a REALTOR® with Montgomery Whiteley Realty, under my real name Roxann Riedel. If you’re thinking of moving to the Ozarks of Arkansas and would like me to be your Buyer’s Representative, email, text, or call me at (479) 409-3429! And if you’re moving away from or selling property in Madison, Newton, or Carroll county, I’m happy to be your Listing Agent.