My Story   

     I love animals, painting and rocks. This I knew, but not how they would all come together in recent years.

     Growing up in  Northeast Georgia gave me access to the woods and streams. As the only girl in a family of six brothers, I kept busy rescuing critters terrorized by my siblings. My mother always encouraged me to explore my creative side.

     I studied art at Brenau, Georgia University and Georgia State, with a main focus in realism oil on canvas. After college I put aside my brushes to manage a company, get married and start a family.

     Requests were coming in for animal portraits and I picked up my brushes again. My biggest supporter, my Mother, loved to watch me paint. In 2018 her macular degeneration was so advanced that she became legally blind and I stopped painting in the studio to take care of her. She had a sliver of peripheral vision which enabled her to sit beside me while I took stones from her streambeds and painted on them. She said it was like watching something come to life. That began my new adventure in "Creek Diving”.One day while working on stones for an animal rescue benefit, my mother heard me comment that I just fell in love with painting rocks. She brought  a small stone out of her bedroom and handed it to me. There was a squirrel painted on it with my initials at 15 years old. "You always loved rocks", she said. I carry this rock with me to all my shows in remembrance of her. All of my stones are “as found” from family property in the northwest Georgia mountain streams. They are washed, sealed with acrylic, painted with acrylic and sealed again. Painting on stone was very challenging at first, but when I stopped trying to control the paint some cool things started to happen. God created each of us with unique qualities that some might label flaws, but just as each stone has its texture and ridges, that is what makes us one of a kind. I truly give him the glory because he gave me the talent and I hope it brings you joy!

Rebecca Camboia

southernheritagegallery.com

“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace…” 1 Peter 4:10