They create large and intricate designs, which are easily eroded by strong wind and waves. He said, ‘Actually I think of the rake as my brush.’ His average drawing covers an area of about 20 meters square. Alapid said that sometimes it took me only an hour to make them and sometimes I worked on them for hours. When he wrote a message on the sand, its letters would be more than 100 meters long. He started his sand art in 2014.
Hotel offered full time job in 2015
The first time he drew a tree in the sand on Umm Suqeem beach as a tribute to his late grandmother. The size of this drawing greatly influenced the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. In 2015, the hotel offered him his first full-time job as a sand artist. Since then he has decorated the sands of the UAE with around 1900 drawings. He has also worked with brands like Burberry and Adidas.
world’s largest picture made on sand
He also made drawings for National Geographic in the series ‘The UAE from above’. The art of Alapid has also been used by the UAE government. To make the public aware about the Covid restrictions, he had written a huge ‘#STAY HOME’ on the sand which could be seen from the sky as well. In 2022, he made a world record by making the world’s largest picture on the sand. The drawing, spread over 23,000 square metres, took 30 days to complete. 12,000 tonnes of sand of four colors were used to make it.
