Meet the Londoner brightening people's day with hand-painted rocks
Have you found one of Caprice Gautreau's kindness rocks?
Coloured rocks with kind messages have started to appear on park benches, in playgrounds and around storefronts in London.
Caprice Gautreau is one of the Londoners responsible for bringing the hand-painted "inspirational" rocks, as she calls them, to the city.
Inspired by the kindness rocks movement, Gautreau's hobby consists of painting rocks with art designs and kind messages and then hiding them for others to find.
"If I can add a smile to someone's day and make them realize that it's not a bad life, it's just a bad day, maybe I can do some good," Gautreau said.
While initially the rocks were only found in Byron, Gautreau's rocks are now making their way to all parts of the city.
A painter at heart, she decided to pick up the trend after discovering it during a recent visit to Newfoundland.
"It was probably one of the most amazing things I had ever seen ... There are literally walls of painted rocks," she said.
Gautreau's rocks feature messages of encouragement and hope such as "Be strong," "Smile" and "You are not alone," to mention a few.
"It's a way of brightening people's day," she said.
When Gautreau started painting rocks as a hobby at the beginning of the fall, she was using rocks from her own garden. Now, she's collecting them from her friend's farm, due to the high volume she's able to paint.
And like looking for the right canvas, it can sometimes take her a bit of time to find the best rocks to paint on.
"For the most part, I'm looking for smooth rocks, but I recently painted the Grinch, so I actually preferred a more rugged looking rock," she said.
The rocks are painted with acrylic paint and finished with a varnish to make sure the artwork holds up during different weather, including rain and snow.
Gautreau hopes the initiative becomes a way for children to get outdoors and find the rocks, but also a way for Londoners to embrace their inner painters.
"You don't have to be an artist to paint these rocks, you can paint with your children and lay them out and be a part of something that can be so simple, but that can brighten people's days," she said.
Those who find a rock are encouraged to take a picture of it and post it on the Rockin Art London Facebook page. Gautreau says they can keep the rock or they can re-hide it for someone else to find.
"The hope is to add a little beauty, a little chuckle or a little smile here and there."
