I’d just started camping again and I was halfway through painting my gang gang cockatoo but wasn’t confident about painting outside. So I thought the safest option was to start another painting and something a little smaller.

The wind was horrendous even with my car awning set up and it was difficult to keep my artwork from flying away.

I managed to get a lift in with another camper and purchase a clipboard to hold my artwork down. This seemed to work, but I was still inundated with various bugs and flying dust.

After out lining the two crabs I started wetting the paper and then painted the sand with a light wash.

Next I added some bits of texture in the sand then had another attempt at using my stippling brush. This time I covered my iPad up so I wouldn’t get any paint on it.

Painting out doors has its advantages and disadvantages but what I found was people loved to stop by and see what I was doing.
This usually ended up with people purchasing some of my gift cards which will enable me to print more of my latest works in the future.

The crabs legs were relatively easy to paint but the body and mouth was a little harder as my photos were a little blurred.

Having finished the first crab I moved onto the second, I knew once I started on his claw things would start to take shape.

Word got around the campsite that I was an artist and I seemed to have a steady flow of people coming to watch me paint and have a good long chat.
This also had its advantages, as I would often get invited for dinner, snacks, drinks any time of the day. Beth even brought me fresh baked scones, cream and Jam one morning for morning tea.

My favourite part of the crab was his big red claw and all the little speckles on it.

To finish off I painted the crabs legs and then added the crabs shadow cast on the sand.
I was going to add some mangrove roots but in the end I thought they would distract from the crabs.