River Rocks

River Rocks” (2017) 8.5 x 11.5 pastel on sanded paper is a representation of a dish of rocks perched on a metal stand in my backyard. My son is an ardent believer in helping out any creature that appears to be in dire circumstances. He had read several articles on the endangered situation of bees and after finding several dead bees in our swimming pool and fish pond he suggested that we set up a watering station for them. So off I went to our local craft store and bought two sacks of decorative rocks. I later discovered that I could have gotten a much larger bag of the same thing at a home improvement store and had some left other for another project, but I digress. I found two old 9-inch baking pans that had seen better days and pressed them into service. They were inserted into the holders of one of my mother’s plant stands and placed it next to one of the butterfly bushes she had planted in our yard. One spring day while I was out with my iPhone taking pictures of the newly sprouting buds, I included one of the rock dishes to be used as reference for another painting I was working on which included these types of rocks. After going back inside and downloading the photos to my computer I discovered that what looked like drab grey rocks to the naked eye revealed their true colors when kissed by the sun.