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This rocky outcrop is in Central Australia. It is ancient and appears unmoving. This poem I wrote for this collection. CC BY Wendy Taleo

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This rocky outcrop is in Central Australia. It is ancient and appears unmoving. This poem I wrote for this collection. CC BY Wendy Taleo

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Monique

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Aleth

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Photo partagée par Monique

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Partagée par Monique

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A collection of stones collected in the Aveyron region of France, in Tenerife and the île d'Oléron.
I have always been fascinated by the sheer variety of stones and pebbles, not only in the world, but on one beach, in one garden, in one square metre of ground.
I am like a magpie, the glitter and the shiny have me swooping in for the grab and then my eye is taken to the beautiful patterns in one less showy than it's shimmering neighbours.
Stones in stones, trapped for centuries, the waters swirling round them, to leave them suspended for ever in a hole of time.
Swirls and stripes, spots and freckles; nature's mark making in abundance.

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Le mioche qui se prenait pour Sisyphe : Ce matin je retombe sur ma seule véritable collection. Finalement assez détachable des objets, j’ai pour ainsi dire gardé seulement deux choses anciennes. Des cailloux, divers, pour certains retrouvés dans mes affaires, chez mes parents datants de mon enfance. Ce tas de pierres est déposé dans une assiette, autre vestige de temps anciens, où je vivais à Bertholène(12). N’habitant pas tout à fait dans le village mais à 150m de panneau, je remontais tous les soir de l’école, en poussant à coups de pied, un de ces insignifiants cailloux qui jalonnent les routes de village et qui amusent les "mioches". M’étant pris d’affection pour un d’entre eux, qui me permettait de me rêver en Platini, j’avais pris pour habitude de le conserver dans mon sac, et de le sortir à bon escient, à le fin de la journée.
Sisyphe avait peut être aussi développé une sorte de sentiment pour son rocher?
Photo N°1 : la collection
Photo N°2 : les différentes pierres, provenants de Bertholène, puis de différents coins de l’Aveyron, et du monde (Hong-Kong, Saint Félix, Sicile, Montignac, Saphimaniris (madagascar), Lisbonne…
Photo N°3 : Anniversaire de mes 8ans (l’aga auquel j’ai décidé de devenir artiste grâce à mon maître d'école) avec cette assiette dessert (la même que photo N°2) histoire que je ressort avec lourdeur et sourire à chaque repas à la maison.
Photo n°4 De l’école (à droite) en passant devant la poste, je sortais mon caillou, dépassant le panneau de Bertholène, je longeais la maison de Mlles Duteils chez qui je prenais des cours de piano. Puis l’ascension douce vers la maison de famille.

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la collection «Caillou» sera mise en dialogue avec les œuvres de Nadine Vergues de Corinne Vignet de Jean Vincent et le lieu exceptionnel qui est est la Maison du Patrimoine, Sauxillanges, qui autrefois faisait partie d’un monastère Clunisien.

« Caillou » (pebble) collection will be one element of a collective exhibition with three other artists: Nadine Vergues, Corinne Vignet and Jean Vincent.

The exhibition will place the artists and their artworks in dialogue with each other and the wonderful Maison du Patrimoine, formerly part of the Clunisien monastery of Sauxillanges.

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Pebbles for the pocket, too many to carry. Leave them for others to see and enjoy.  Some too big but still glorious... 

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Pebbles for the pocket, too many to carry. Leave them for others to see and enjoy.  Some too big but still glorious... 

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@helenzart2021.com

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A connection to Ancestral beingness.  Their creation of sites to shape concepts of the world around them. Drawn to explain the things 'out there' to examine the things within too. To paint them is to recollect a sense of place from that now to this now.
www.helenzart2021.com

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I keep my shell and pebble collection in my sea themed bathroom. They all have personal meaning. The smallest pebble was given to me by one of the YMCA residents on a trip to lake Maggorie from the lake. The largest pebble is from Budleigh Salterton beach, I collected to remember my Nan who had died recently. It is also a reminder of many great family holidays.

Jo.

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Here are pebbles collected with my grandchildren on our local beach, Oliva, Valencia, Spain. They remind me of days walking along the beach, searching, when they were younger.

Ann.

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The ancient symbolism of stones and their wisdom is shown and explained to you through high-quality photographs from the around the world.

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Ede often described himself as a 'friend of artists', and much of his collection was acquired over five decades through these friendships. Moreover, in 1927 Jim purchased a substantial body of works by the French sculptor, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who had been killed in World War I: 'A great quantity of his work was dumped in my office at the Tate.' Soon after, Nicholson and Wood introduced Ede to the work of St Ives fisherman-turned-painter Alfred Wallis. In the following decade he and Wallis exchanged numerous letters (some preserved in the Archive), and Jim acquired over one hundred of the artist's paintings and drawings.

During the years he and Helen spent abroad (1936-56), Jim did not acquire new work. However, once in Cambridge he actively resumed collecting. It was at this point that he became interested in new artists, including William Congdon, Italo Valenti and Elisabeth Vellacott.

Given the care devoted by Jim to the display of objects and artworks and to creating subtle 'conversations' between them, since his departure the House has been preserved virtually unchanged. Today many consider it a work of art in its own right.

Image Licensing

Unless otherwise specified, all images are © Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge.

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Ede often described himself as a 'friend of artists', and much of his collection was acquired over five decades through these friendships. Moreover, in 1927 Jim purchased a substantial body of works by the French sculptor, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, who had been killed in World War I: 'A great quantity of his work was dumped in my office at the Tate.'

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Whenever let loose on a beach I immediately find myself looking at the ground around me, stooping, and picking up objects for closer examination. Sometimes it is shells or driftwood. Occasionally it is a useful piece of nylon string. But what I find fascinates me most frequently are pebbles.

On the beach at Filey in Yorkshire, about ten years ago it occurred to me that, although I was exercising great discrimination in selecting pebbles, I might just as well shut my eyes and pick up the first one I stumbled across and that single pebble would give me as much satisfaction.

This observation troubled me slightly, and bided its time, quietly fizzing in the very back of my mind until a few months ago on a beach in Pembrokeshire. That idea about "any old pebble" popped up to greet a new niggling observation. I was noticing in myself a sense of affection bordering on love and nostalgia towards the stones I was picking up and, with some reluctance, releasing again to the wild.

Suddenly these were people. Indeed, they were my patients! Do I have a favourite? No, of course not. Is any one not worthy of love? No. Is any of them perfect? No. Do they share features, and yet retain, each of them, a uniqueness? Yes. Do I take a particular interest in some over others, for a time? Yes. Does each of them accompany me for a time and then leave? Yes. And do I have a sense of the number that I can safely carry, and the number that I can examine closely, at any one time? Yes.

Of course the analogy has its limits. Any analogy that is total or complete ceases to be an analogy or of any interest. I do not see myself as of any use to these stones. I don't expect any of them to be in any kind of predicament that I might be able to help them through. In fact the roles are somewhat reversed. It is more likely that they can help me with my predicament.

But do they talk to me? Yes.

What makes these pebbles like people to me? What is it they share?

A pebble's character is shaped by two things: their inherent material, and their experience. Each stone is made of a material which may be soft, hard, brittle, porous. These features, in turn, have their distant origin in constituent and experience - their chemical makeup and the terrible forces that gave birth. There may also be a fault line, or a sheering plane due to differing materials joining. And then there is the tossing and churning, the action of water, and jostling with their fellows which has brought them to their current shape. The interaction of these two broad sets of influences is important. Some will have been more or less resilient to this abrasion. Others may have seemed impenetrable until they split after a sharp tap, to reveal a hollow interior. And then this, in turn, was smoothed and adapted. And some may have been brought here from elsewhere, finding themselves in the company of other shapes and colours.

I found myself moved by the stories of these stones. And by the fact that, yes, some of them caught my eye - bright colours or a wet shine - but that I could pick any one of them, take an equal interest in it and enjoy its company - for a time.

Ultimately, of course, the analogy relaxes its grip and we fall back into our respective places. I turn to my human companion, perhaps compare notes, and move on.
Return to Home Page: Therapeutic Attitude Post script - check out Leaves Leaving
Published

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Whenever let loose on a beach I immediately find myself looking at the ground around me, stooping, and picking up objects for closer examination. Sometimes it is shells or driftwood. Occasionally it is a useful piece of nylon string. But what I find fascinates me most frequently are pebbles.

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Barbara Hepworth: The Life and Work of the Modern Sculptor

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Barbara Hepworth: The Life and Work of the Modern Sculptor

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Barbara Hepworth was one of the most influential modern sculptors of the 20th century. During her lifetime, she created a collection of abstract sculptures characterized by dramatic forms and curves.

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Henry Moore | Two Forms | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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David Sylvester, ed. Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings. Vol. 1, 1921-1948. (4th revised ed.; 1st ed. 1944). London, 1957, p. 9, no. 146, ill. p. 85 (ironstone version), notes that there is one ironstone version and an edition of six bronzes.

Robert Melville. Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings 1921-1969. New York, [1970], pp. 17, 342, ill. (unknown cast), pl. 102 (ironstone version), dates it 1936.

Lisa M. Messinger. "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1982-1983. New York, 1983, p. 68, ill.

David Collens in 20th Century Sculpture: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. brochure, Storm King Art Center. [Mountainville, N. Y.], [1984], unpaginated.

Lowery S. Sims in 20th Century Sculpture: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. brochure, Storm King Art Center. [Mountainville, N. Y.], [1984], unpaginated.

David Sylvester, ed. Henry Moore: Complete Sculpture. Vol. 1, Sculpture 1921-48. 5th ed. (1st ed., 1944). London, 1988, p. 9, no. 146, ill. p. 85 (ironstone version).

Henry Moore Foundation. Henry Moore Artwork Catalogue. Online resource [catalogue.henry-moore.org], 2021 (accessed), no. LH 146 cast a, ill.

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Henry Moore | Two Forms | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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David Sylvester, ed. Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings. Vol. 1, 1921-1948. (4th revised ed.; 1st ed. 1944). London, 1957, p. 9, no. 146, ill. p. 85 (ironstone version), notes that there is one ironstone version and an edition of six bronzes. Robert Melville. Henry Moore: Sculpture and Drawings 1921-1969.

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United States east coast

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The view from the ferry

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Seen on a beach on Mull

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On the beach next to Skara Brae

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While enjoying a walk on the beach, I wrote this for others to do the same.

Sometimes a walk on the beach is joyful, as this one was with grandchildren.

Sometimes it’s a moment of solace in times of trouble. We go to the beach, in part, for its calming and grounding— to reset our joy in world so often in chaos.

Smile, and find a quite place in nature to walk— for your soul.

My photo on Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/obH7x5

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‘The beautifully shaped stone, washed up by the sea, is a symbol of continuity, a silent image of our desire for survival, peace and security.’ (Barbara Hepworth)

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Why do people love pebbles? What do pebbles tell us about the world – and about ourselves?

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"Planet Claire" 2023

"Le moindre mouvement est important pour la nature entière. L'océan entier est affecté par un caillou." Blaise Pascal.

"The least movement is of all importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble." Blaise Pascal.