That was my first impression, too.

My image is a bit different.

I picture a male (in overalls), not quite a "man," who buried them surreptitiously. Maybe embarrassed, or to hide them, or to keep them safe in a "taking care of them" kind of way.

I can imagine them being painted as the happy souls of people who were possibly hurt in some way by the painter. He was sorry he hurt them or wanted to remember them in their happy, or nomal, way.

Or, maybe they are just people he loved and admired, but in a quiet, shy way.

(Ooooh, my imagination is running away with me!)

It feels very 1940-1950ish to me. Maybe even earlier.

I wonder if we'll ever know?

It is fun to see the different impressions we all have!

Sandy, I think they are just the medium the artist worked with, many of the faces are the same person, maybe you could sort them by person and see how many different people are there.

Very interesting idea.

Lay them all out on a table, in rows of similar faces. You'll see how many different ones there are, and how many times each one comes up, which would give you an idea of who/what this person was obsessing about most. Are there lots of childlike ones? Lots of adult-looking ones? male or female? That sort of thing.

ETA: please do this before 2012, or after it, but not during it. This is the sort of thing that could open a portal to an alternate dimension or something.
Don't arrange them in a pentacle. Please.

I'm the sort of person you should NEVER say "whatever you do, don't touch that buton". So now you've done it.

I'll see about time to sort out the faces. It's farm here guys! A small one by Australian standards perhaps, but still a farm, with weeds and fencing and hanimals and so on.

One thing: I've noticed that the paint is definitely affected by being exposed to the sun and/or air. I've thought of burying them again, but then it will just happen all over again to someone else.

Hmmm . . . Maybe that's part of the cycle of life for the stones . . .

Is it time to start calling them "soul-eggs" yet? :D

And perhaps you could drape a hessian bag or something over the stones to protect them from the sun, SP. I'd take care of these things until you've actually decide not to. Don't neglect them, I mean.

You wouldn't want to make them angry.

I like that - Soul Eggs. Sounds appropriate. And kinda creepy.

It's probably some perfectly innocent thing, like some poor person was an invalid and passing their time painting, or recovering and painting. Then someone buried them because they were creeping them out.

Maybe someone thought that if they buried the rocks it would take the paint off of them and return them to regular rocks.

That's just what they want you to think...

Zen

You are at least partly responsible for one of my disturbing dreams last night.
The other is an author with similar ideas, but sadly not delivered as succinctly.

Please desist or I shall have to sue you for distress.

Yrs sinc,
etc etc etc

Tail post, but did we ever figure this out?

It's still a live mystery. It has only been a week.

It's a gneiss little puzzle, if we cobble together the evidence something should come up. Keep at it, shale be right. ;)

I live in rural Australia and things move slowly here. If I try to rush about and get people to tell me what they know about it, it just won't work. As I previously mentioned, I can't ask the last owner of this place as she is still suffering a sort of post traumatic stress at having had to leave this place and - even though it had nothing to do with us, we just bought the place - whenever I see her, her face freezes with a smile and then she flees, so I think I'd be pushing things if I asked about the stones, as it could indeed be something she, or her greater family, did here. I plan to suss it out with our neighbours and those of her friends that I know. I've already asked two lots of neighbours (and bear in mind that our neighbours are not all THAT close geographically) and they knew nothing of it. I considered getting the local newspaper to take a photo and ask in an article if anyone knew about them, but my worries about the last owner again make me hesitant.

Rest assured that I shall most definitely post a message as soon as I find out anything at all!

I wouldn't do the newspaper thing. If this is to do with some personal psychotherapy, it would be very embarrassing to have it all come out publicly.

In fact, this might be why the previous own freaks out when she sees you. "She must have found them. Has she found them? How many has she found? Dear God, does she know?"

Sorry, Sundae.

Can you get one of the neighbors that the previous owner isn't scared of to ask?

Yes yes yes, people! I promise I will keep on trying!

:D