Painting on Stone
Learn how with a master
Imagine combining the thrills of finding a smooth and perfect stone with creating art. Dover, a leader in craft instruction books both old and new, offers three original titles on stone painting by artist F. Sehnaz Bac. All three books provide instructions for the beginner as well as tips and tricks for more experienced artists.
Not only is Sehnaz a wonderful artist and teacher, but she’s a trained archaeologist. She studied archaeology at Ege University, in Izmir, Turkey. “I worked at many different archeological excavations as archeologist and draftsman in Turkey with Turkish and foreign excavation teams for almost 23 years,” says Sehnaz. “My main subject was ceramics; the pottery of ancient of ancient Greece, particularly the Orientalizing style, which was the product of cultural ferment in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean of the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.”
Her love of ancient design has influenced her detailed and colorful work, the techniques for which she explains and shares in all three books.
The most recent book, A Year of Stone Painting: 52 Mandala Designs to Inspire Your Spirit calls on the ancient religious practice of creating circular designs to focus the mind and the soul. Sehnaz starts the book with instructions on making basic grids and patterns in freehand or by using a compass or protractor. There is also a discussion of sacred geometry to tap into the ways human across many cultures have arrived at a spiritual practice through art. Each of the 52 chapters gives instruction for the week’s new design.
Stone painting is also fun! Children can create their own masterpieces with the techniques in Stone Painting for Kids: Designs to Spark Your Creativity. “When I worked for the book about stone painting for kids,” says Sehnaz, “I tried to put together a wide range of designs for the projects. I painted the stones with different subjects and techniques; sometimes just for fun, to create a flower or a face — sometimes to learn numbers or letters, or sometimes to play with them. In this way, I thought the process of painting stones could help the children to develop their own innate creativity while they are playing /having fun.”
Sehnaz’s first book for Dover, The Art of Stone Painting: 30 Designs to Spark Your Creativity is popular and well-loved, garnering praise on book review websites as well as on Goodreads. While you can begin with any of the three books to learn about selecting and preparing stones as well as the best materials to create your works of art, the first book is a perfect place to start and will help the adult beginner to start with more basic designs and then work up.
“I love to work with details,” says Sehnaz of her inspiration, “Making technical drawings of small finds in archeological excavations as fragments of pottery and ceramics, helped me to improve my skills about observing small details. My curiosity and imagination inspire me to create, colorful and detailed artworks.”
Be sure to visit Sehnaz’s Esty shop, I Sassi Dell Adriatico (Stones of the Adriatic) to see more of her amazing artwork.
