A Painting Elephant Artist!

  With nearly 5 million views, there is a good chance that many of you have seen this amazing video of an Asian Elephant artist! 

I can’t tell you how many times people have shared their desire to paint with me. I like to fondly call these wanna-be artists, “Armchair-Artists” who sit around reading about and looking at art. I do my best to encourage them out of the chair and into the studio.  But, I am often met with comments like:

“I have no talent.”
“My sister is the artist.”
“I am too old to try.”
“There isn’t enough time in the day.”
“I can only draw flies.” (lol)
(well, you get the idea!)

Whether you possess latent artistic abilities or not, this touching and inspiring video is worth the watch:

A bit about the elephant artists:

Asian elephants have an innate impulse to draw. Unprompted, an Asian elephant in captivity will often pick up a pebble or stick with the tip of her trunk and casually doodle on the floor of her enclosure. Of course, the leap from doodling in the sand to painting on canvas requires training, encouragement, and art supplies-for both elephant and their ‘mahout’ (trainer).

As painters, elephants are masters of the rapidly executed, spontaneous gesture and I am amazed that they paint ‘self portraits’! Although no two elephant paintings are alike, there seems to be an emergence of three major regional styles.

1. Northern, or Lampang school:  lyrical and expressive, characterized by broken brushwork, curvilinear forms, and bold, clear, primary colors.
2. Central Thai, or Ayutthaya school:  darker, cooler colors such as deep violet, black, and forest green, applied with broad, vigorous brushstrokes that sweep across the canvas from edge to edge.
3. Southern, or Phuket school: saturated tertiary colors like mustard, plum, and magenta, mixed on the surface of the paper with broad, gentle, curvy brushstrokes.

For more information on Elephant Art, please visit The Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project

  So, pick up a paintbrush and give it a try! Lori

No related posts.