In celebration of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which had its closing ceremony on February 26, Shelton resident Craig Smith visited the office of The Newtown Bee the following day to showcase an Olympics-inspired rock that he painted.

Mr Smith has been presenting the rock at various locations across Fairfield County for the public to view, including temporarily displaying it at the Church Hill Road newspaper office for a few days the previous week.

"I love the Olympics," Mr Smith said enthusiastically, adding that he has attended various Olympic games in the past and created art for many of the recent summer and winter Olympic events.

His most recent creation is an elaborate painting he did on a rock, less that a foot in height, that details the official Olympic rings, lit Olympic torch, the Korean national white tiger, and Korean symbols, as well as depictions of various winter Olympic sporting events.

Mr Smith says the painting process took a couple weeks, due to the time-consuming method of needle painting the details on the rock.

By removing the lead of a pencil, he placed a doll needle in the center and said he would dip the needle point in very small drops of paint, which he placed on a smaller rock as his palette.

Mr Smith enjoys showing people the Winter Olympic rock he painted in person, saying that seeing it up close illustrates "the spirit of it all."