Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen ‘cloud animals’ floating above you? Well artist Akie Nakata gazes below her instead and sees eyes peering up at her from stones on the ground.
When Akie sees an animal in a stone’s natural shape, she selects the stone and studies it carefully to get a full sense of the animal within that’s just waiting to be brought to life.
Without altering the stone’s shape or processing it in any way, she paints directly on the ‘canvas’ that nature’s presented her with.
When she’s happy with the correct position and feel for the eventual artwork, Akie sets to work with her paintbrush and transforms an otherwise ordinary stone into a beautiful animal with expressive eyes, which are always the last feature to be painted.
Watch this video to see some of Akie’s beautiful stone animals:
Visit Akie Nakata’s Facebook and Instagram pages to see her latest stone animal creations and even get one for yourself. You’ll need to be quick though if you have a favourite because, due to the nature of how Akie ‘sees’ the animals in individual stones, she can’t replicate the same stone animal to order.
When a painted animal is finished, Akie displays it on her Facebook page as ready to be ‘adopted’. As soon as it’s purchased, Akie updates the status to ‘Found a home’.
Let us know which one of the painted stone animals is your favourite in the comments below. Try your hand at painting natural objects and post a picture for others to admire.
Photo and video credits: with permission from Akie Nakata
