By Betina Morgan

During the past several years, while plodding along the mountain trails in my backyard, I came across various rocks and stones that caught my attention as being curiously attractive. I chose to pick some of these up to inspect them more extensively. I brought them to brook water and washed them free of dirt and debris. What happened next took my breath away and stole my heart for the tides of amazement and awe that swept through it.

But let’s back up to a time prior. As a landscape painter, I’ve always been drawn to the beauty of the terrain I’ve encountered in the areas I’ve lived in. Through the years, as I began to mature, it seemed to me that the standard and ordinary features of the land surrounding my home were anything but ordinary. Hills and lakes, valleys full of wildflowers, and trees, of all shapes and sizes, swaying in the breezes and juxtaposed against the sky, began to capture my soul with their images. These images have, through the years, taken on a reality within me that has grown to become a sincere appreciation of the integrity and beauty of design within creation. In my paintings, I am ever endeavoring to portray this beauty.
In the past 10 years, all of the various landscapes and different terrains I have had to visit, enjoy, and absorb throughout my life, have become a world within my soul – a wellspring of resource to draw from as source material for my paintings. This has resulted in deep intuitiveness regarding the nature and geological aspects of the earth. In this season of my growth as an artist, I can “look inside my soul” to form the compositions of my paintings. As I am painting, I am finding the inspiration to move my brush with intuitive strokes on the canvas, and delighted to move along in the dance of creative expression.

I am sharing these things to convey that as I have been steeped in the multiple designs within nature, I have developed a visual “eye” for its views and scenes. That first day, when I began to look deeper at the rocks I’d happened upon, I began to notice that there were designs and motifs on their surfaces. I kept my physical eyes, as well as my “spiritual eyes” open, and continued to search out these interesting rocks and stones. I soon had a little collection of them.
In the evenings, within the low-level brightness of the overhead lights in my home, as I stared at these stones, I was startled to find real scenes on them – almost as though a tattoo artist had somehow dyed these precious artistic compositions right into the material of the rock. I found this difficult to believe, because the scenes were so perfectly executed and unmistakably realistic in their portrayal of nature, animals, and people! I was finding it hard to wrap my brain around what I was seeing.

For a long while, I just let this realization sink into my mind. Busy weeks and months passed, while, in the back of my mind, I pondered what I’d uncovered.

Some months later, the idea came to me to begin a painting series based on what I was discovering on these stones. I set some time aside and begin to seek out guidance from my higher power, God. I started to feel confident that it would be a good thing to begin to portray on canvas the scenes I had discovered on the rocks. It seemed most natural to me, as landscape painting is my passion.
And so, the Shouting Stones series began back in September of 2016. Simultaneous to this development was the advent of a new little artist studio, opening up for me. Not only did I have a commission to carry out, but the studio to do the work in. Since the autumn of 2016, I have painted nine scenes from the rocks and stones I’ve collected. They are astounding scenes and right to the integrity of nature and historical events. I am currently working on my tenth painting.

Starting in August of 2018, everyone is welcome to come and view an example of these fascinating paintings, and their corresponding “Shouting Stones,” in one of two places – The Fig Tree*, located at 3259 Asheville Road, Waynesville, NC, 28786, and inside Longs UMC*, located at 1097 Coffee Branch Road, Canton, NC, 28716. They will be on display for sale by suggested donation, with the monies given as a gift to the Fig Tree and Longs UMC.

My suggestion to everyone tempted to paint over the surface of a stone or rock is this – before you do, be careful to observe whether there isn’t already Someone’s handy work on that stone!!

“If we don’t praise Him, the stones will shout out!”*
*Words of Christ: Luke 19: 40

Betina Morgan
bmk.morgan@yahoo.com
June 2018
* For more information on the Fig Tree, including times of operation, visit: Facebook/The Fig Tree Prayer and Worship
* For more information on Long’s UMC, including hours of service, visit www.umc.org, or google: Longs United Methodist Church, Canton, NC