This grey rock provided an artist with a perfect backdrop for her tiny painting

A little grey rock provided the perfect canvas for American artist Sheri Butler.

Butler’s atmospheric lighthouse painting was shared to Reddit, where it received more than 85,000 upvotes.

The artist, from Whidbey Island in Washington, paints every day before her full-time job as a nanny, and has her own Facebook page where she shares her rock paintings … before hiding her work in the wild again.

Butler said: “I used all acrylic paint. I didn’t actually use any pure black or pure white. The lighthouse is actually a very light blue and pink, and the trim is a very dark grey. The light is a very pale yellow.

“Of course it’s hard to tell from the photo, but I think using these colours added to the natural effect of a storm.

“Honestly I spent about 10 minutes on this piece. After the amount of views it got I received a lot of backlash for the lack of detail. I would’ve spent a lot longer on it had I known it would be seen by so many!”

Butler said she was inspired to start her artwork by the group Whidbey Island Rocks, a community for sharing artists’ painted rocks and stones.

She said: “I’ve been painting rocks for a little over a year. I do hide most of my work. I started painting rocks when I first heard of ‘Whidbey Island Rocks’.”

Butler added: “The blank rock was actually purchased from a local shop.

“The second I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to paint on it. It’s like I could see where the lighthouse was before I painted it. It turned it into the perfect storm.

“I don’t ever keep my own art, but I think I’ll be keeping this one for a while.”