OLD ORCHARD BEACH — In what may look to most like an ordinary rock, Vicki Lowe can see potential for a unique piece of art.

She took a rock with two rounded bumps on the bottom, and saw it as a canvas for a tiny painting of a car, the two bumps as tires. She saw another with a pointy triangular projection, which became the ear of a painting of a dog.

“You know when you were a kid and looked up at clouds and tried to see what they were? It’s like that,” said Lowe, sitting at the kitchen table of the house in the seaside community of Ocean Park, where she has spent summers her whole life.

In that very kitchen, Lowe has created dozens of mini masterpieces on stones, including paintings of area buildings and landmarks, portraits of people and pictures of animals. She has kept a few favorites, but the rest she gives away in a rock garden in front of her 66 Randall Ave. cottage.

Some designs, like a dotted mandala, may take a half hour to paint, while others take longer, though Lowe’s not logging the hours.

“It’s one of those things, it’s so relaxing to me that I just lose all concept of time,” she said.

The rocks are found at area beaches or given to her by friends. She has even purchased river rocks at the landscaping section of Home Depot for a back-up supply, to assure she won’t run out of material.

Lowe, who’s primary residence is Foxboro, Massachusetts, retired last year from her job as director of a senior center.

Though she’s never been to art school, Lowe’s house is a reflection of her natural talent, including distinctively painted floors and stairs and a deck table with a handmade mosaic top.

“I’ve always liked doing creative things,” said Lowe.

After retirement, Lowe found herself with more time, and when her grandchildren came up to visit in June, she created the “Kindness Rock Garden” with a sign inviting people to take a rock or leave a rock. Those who take rocks are asked to post where they end up on the OP Maine Rocks Facebook page. The rocks are painted in acrylics and coated with varnish so the artwork can withstand being outside.

One woman posted on Facebook that they had left a rock painted with a picture of a dragonfly and the word “HOPE,” at Catholic Medical Center, in Manchester, New Hampshire to brighten someone’s day.

“That’s the whole idea of it, to brighten someone’s day,” said Lowe.

The idea of painting rocks with uplifting messages or designs and leaving them for others to find or relocate is credited to Massachusetts life coach Megan Murphy, who began the Kindness Rocks Project The rocks are meant to inspire and connect people, and to create a kinder world, said Murphy in a 2017 interview.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be reached at 780-9015 or by email at egotthelf@journaltribune.com.