While sitting on the beach with my daughter and two grandsons, patiently waiting for the arrival of baby boy #3, we were entertained by crows swiping food from the strollers and picnic basket of unsuspecting beaching people.

Sneak thieves

What was most interesting with their behaviour is that they watched the people to ensure they were distracted and not watching their stuff. I had my camera trained on them for a long time happily taking photos. One crow in particular perched on the back of a stroller and picked it’s way through the treasure in the back.

Only after taking many photos and marvelling at its behaviour did I realize I should call out to the owners of the stroller to let them know what was going on. Then I proceed to take more photos as they approached. Does this qualify as an obsession?

Picnic packers

And this routine continued throughout the rest of the afternoon (and week really). One nimble crow hopped down the side of a rock formation that was protecting a picnic area. It cautiously took out a plastic loaf bag filled with sandwiches. It poked and pecked and pulled until it was free of the backet. I have it well documented on film. And then of course, realized that I should inform the people who packed the picnic in the first place. Sheepish grin.

Snack Attack

I found one crow in particular to be of interest. He managed to relieve a granola bar from the safety of a tote bag. He pecked and pulled at it until he was able to release it from the plastic wrapper. That is what this painting is about. There was one crow working on the wrapper, changing his position and hopping all about but never releasing his prize.

I had a painting in mind when I was watching him. This format was stuck in my head, only the reference photos were not quite right. So, I flipped the image over and voila I had the positioning for second crow that I was looking for!

Incidentally I am “himming” this crow – I really cannot tell the gender difference – can you?

Corvid Crackers

And what to do with the label on the wrapper? Well I wanted it to be fun – so I came up with Corvid Crackers. And to add to the complexity, I decided to create the label upside down. Strangely one of the trickiest parts of this painting was painting the pure white background. This entire painting was a joy to concoct and create. Pure painting fun!

I hope you enjoy!

Helen