Dialogue by Mark:

Nature can be an inspiration for the patterns and textures we draw. In today's Master's Gallery, let's look at a photograph of a natural pattern that looks a lot like a maze for our moon mice.

This photograph was taken by William Neill, and comes to us from the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It's a close-up of rocks on a beach in California. Can you see the wet sand and beach pebbles in the cracks?

Nature created this beautiful pattern. A smooth sheet of sandstone was bent when movements in the earth caused the rock layer to fold or bulge out on top. A crack started to form, and just like a tear in a piece of paper, it kept going through the rock. This relieved the pressure a bit, but the earth kept changing. Maybe a hundred years or ten thousand years later, another crack formed...this time going right across the first crack. Look carefully and you'll see that most of these cracks meet at square angles.

Look for patterns in the cracks of dried mud, rocks that have formed from cooling lava, even pottery glaze or old paint on a building. And if you're a artist, like William Neill, you might want to capture the beautiful design with a close-up photograph, or draw it with your ever-handy pencil and sketch pad!