During Lockdown I Painted A Wildlife Trail For People To Find During Their Daily Exercise

I’m a graphic designer and artist living in Chislehurst, Greater London and during the lockdown, whilst walking my dog in our beautiful woodlands, I was inspired to paint a series of stones as a ‘wildlife trail’ for other people to find during their daily exercise.

Here in the commuter belt there are beautiful commons and woodlands for everyone to enjoy, but, due to their usual hectic pace of life and city jobs, a lot of people have only started exploring these natural environments for the first time during lockdown.

I planted the stone trail once the restrictions had been relaxed a little, and have been overwhelmed by the response! Lots of them have been found, scanned, photographed and hidden again.

The stones are all pale blue, with a different creature or element of nature on each. Once the stone is found, the back reveals a QR code which can be scanned to reveal a secret page on my website, or alternatively a photo could be sent to me to reveal the link. The page shows a congratulatory message and a time lapse showing that specific stone being painted. There is a polite request on each stone to then hide the stone again for others to find although they are happy to travel! An example of a finder’s reward page can be seen here; www.helenbaylis.com/blue

Each stone took me a couple of hours to do in total, including varnishing the stones and preparing the hidden website links.

I hoped that during these times the stones would encourage people to be more aware of their surroundings and children would be excited to explore the natural environment.

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More info: helenbaylisdesign.com