ARTIST Scott Walker has found a productive pastime to help him cope with the stresses and strains of the coronavirus lockdown – he switched his creative focus from brushes and canvas to stones.

Since the first lockdown in March and the restrictions put in place since, Walker has found relaxation creating around 300 stone stacks around the banks of Loch Lomond, near his home in Balloch, West Dunbartonshire. He said he needed some respite from the anxiety he felt with his family on the Covid frontline: “My wife and daughter both work in social care, although my daughter is now working from home, and I needed relief from the stresses and worries we’ve all been experiencing because of Covid.

“So I took up stone stacking on the shore at Loch Lomond in Balloch Country Park. I’ve done more than 300 and they’re usually temporary. Depending on weather conditions some stay up for days, some don’t last long at all.”

The aesthetically pleasing stacks added a new – if temporary – dimension to the various panoramas of the loch, and Walker said others have also taken up the activity.

“During the summer, after I’d been doing the stacks for a few months, I noticed other people started doing them too,” he said.

“At one point there were about 20 different stacks along the park’s shoreline in the same day.”

The artist – whose Facebook identity is Wingnut Art – has taken pictures of all his stacks and has been sharing them on social media.

He added that others in the area might want to join “this enjoyable and relaxing activity”.