What is Elephant Art?

Elephant Japatee Making a Start

Each painting is an original. An easel similar to the type you would use in your studio or at home is placed out in the open where the artist has plenty of room. I personally work with the elephant artists at the Center on every single painting. I don’t actually do the paintings of course. My job is to place the paper on the easel and to load the paintbrush (we use two different sizes of brush, modified to make it easy for the elephant to hold) with the colours that I choose. I hand the brush to the artist who then takes it in his/her trunk, moves towards the easel and proceeds to paint in his/her own style.

I usually work with two artists at the same time, one on each side of me. They are completely unaided during the creation of each painting, except for the handing over of the brushes. As soon as the paint loaded on the brushes has been used up, the elephants hand the empty brushes back to me (often banging my chest impatiently with their trunks) and wait to have the brushes reloaded.

While the elephants are painting they don’t just wave their trunks around in the air, splashing paint onto the paper in a ‘hit and miss’ fashion. On the contrary they obviously have spatial awareness and they carefully apply the strokes within the confines of the paper, rarely going over the edges except, one can assume, as an artistic gesture.

There is always a clear point in time when the artwork is ‘complete’. I can see this and oftentimes I am certain that the artists can see it too, because instead of giving the brush to me for a refill, they will simply hold the brush back and then stand and look at the work. I remove the painting from the easel and it is stacked for drying.

Published In: What is Elephant Art? > The Value of Authentic Elephant Art

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