An Elephant a Day 2.0

World Society for the Protection of Animals
The Nature Conservancy

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand)

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)

Friday, 24 April 2015

Elephant No. 129: Cheapo Oil Pastels

As many of you may know by now, I'm a sucker for anything that comes in a bunch of colours. So how could I possibly resist a set of 24 oil pastels for two dollars from the dollar store? Clearly, I couldn't.

It's not like I don't have other oil pastels, dry pastels, Conté crayon, watercolour pastels, and probably any other kind of pastel you care to name (except cake pastels, which are next on my list). But this has 24 colours, and even comes with its own holder and sharpener. I have a visceral dislike of pastel and chalk on my fingers, so this is a definite bonus.

So that I could at least pretend that this was a sensible purchase, I decided to draw an elephant with this new set. I had no idea what to expect, but the pastels looked a bit dry, so I assumed they'd fall somewhere between a dry pastel and a true oil pastel.

The texture turns out to be something like a chalky, slightly moist crayon. And I actually quite liked these. My first drawing was just a quick throwaway sketch to test the way these worked. I'm not good with oil pastels, so I had no expectations at all.

Next, I decided to try drawing from a photograph to see if I could create something more detailed. This was the photograph I used.

Two Asian elephants.
Source: Wallsource.com

I began with yellow, red and orange, then blended it a bit with a tortillon. The pinkish background is because the inexpensive sketchpad paper has a pink undertone.

Next, I added a bit of blue and purple.

And then some green.

While I liked this, I thought it needed the faintest bit of black, so I used a fine-tipped gel pen to scribble in a few lines, wrinkles and spots. You can see the final result below.

I didn't expect much from a box of oil pastels that cost a mere two dollars, but I was pleasantly surprised. And this drawing took me less than two hours, which is always a bonus. I now think that I need to buy a second set of these cheapos, just so that I don't run out.

Elephant Lore of the Day

People tend to think of elephants as full-speed-ahead animals, capable of crashing through streams, up and down hills, and through fields, fences and walls. But sometimes an elephant can get itself into a jam that it just can't get out of on its own. Holes—particularly holes filled with mud—pose a particular challenge.

This story was sent to me by my friend and neighbour Maureen. In early March of this year, an elephant got stuck in the mud near Makindu in Southern Kenya. Sinking into a veritable quicksand of soupy clay, the elephant was unable to climb the steep sides of the hole, despite the best efforts of rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service.

The elephant remained stuck for 12 hours before being saved by a Chinese construction company working nearby. A backhoe operator carefully created a long channel, providing the exhausted elephant with a way out. The video is embedded below. To read more, including a link to still photographs, click here.

To Support Elephant Welfare

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand)

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Elephant No. 128: Three Little Purses

While sorting through a bunch of stuff as part of my spring cleaning, I came across this trio of cute little purses. I've had them all for a number of years now, but use them sparingly — mostly because they don't hold a lot, and because I'm definitely a messenger-bag kind of girl.

I picked up this beaded change purse in London nearly ten years ago, from a street vendor near Blackfriars Bridge. It doesn't look much like an elephant, but I kind of like the abstract oddity of it.

I picked up this funky square bag — with tiny bells, no less — a few years back at a local fair trade shop called Ten Thousand Villages.

And this pretty little number was a gift from my friend Cynthia, with the hopeful suggestion that I could use it to carry just my phone, some cash and a credit card. Instead, in hangs on display near my desk.

The first is Chinese in manufacture; the second two are Indian, but all of them are handmade, and they're all cute enough that they're never going out the door with my yearly cast-offs.

Elephant Lore of the Day
Today is YouTube's tenth birthday. I didn't know this, but my friend Lo pointed out this morning that the world's very first YouTube video featured—you guessed it—elephants.

In the 19-second video—titled simply "Me at the zoo"—YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim stands in front of an elephant enclosure and says a few words about the elephants behind him. The video is embedded below. To read more about Karim and YouTube's début, click here.

Happy Birthday, YouTube! And cool about the elephants.

To Support Elephant Welfare

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand)

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Elephant No. 127: Little Telephone Wire Elephant

On the way back from taking my car in for spring servicing today, I noticed a pile of colourful wire scraps on the ground. The pile was in front of a telephone switching box, so I assumed it was left over from recent work.

My first thought was, "I wonder where I can get coloured wire like that for jewellery-making?" My second thought was, "Go back and pick it up, because you could probably make a wee elephant out of it." So that's exactly what I did.

I washed it to remove any residual cooties, then assessed what I had. It wasn't a lot to work with, but I figured I could do something.

I began by making a body and legs, without much real attention to detail. As long as it stood up, I was happy.

Next, I added a head, trunk and tusks.

To finish it and use up every last bit of wire, I took whatever was left of the yellow and began wrapping it around willy nilly.

It's not the best wire elephant I've ever made, but I kind of like it. It only took me about 15 minutes, measures a mere 1-1/2 inches (3.8 cm) from tip of the trunk to tip of the tail, and it's concocted of sidewalk litter. I wasn't looking for an Earth Day project, but perhaps one was looking for me.

Elephant Lore of the Day

Since it's Earth Day, please spare a thought for endangered pachyderms around the world. Several species of rhinoceros (yes, they're also pachyderms) have become extinct in the past few years, and the world's last male Northern White Rhino has not only been stripped of his horn for his own safety, but lives under constant armed guard.

As for elephants, the African elephant is under such threat from ivory poachers that, although its current population is estimated at 400,000, it could become extinct by 2020. Asian elephants are similarly under threat from factors such as habitat loss and human-elephant conflict.

Please spare a thought as well for the brave and committed men and women who devote their lives to protecting wildlife. It isn't an easy job, particularly on the front lines in the war between poachers and conservationists. Poachers are now well funded and highly organized, and have no compunction about killing rangers who get in their way. In Kenya alone, as of October 2013, more than 60 rangers had been killed protecting wildlife.

Family of African elephants.
Photo: © Martin Harvey/WWF-Canon
Source: World Wildlife Fund

To Support Elephant Welfare

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand)

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Elephant No. 126: Jacinthe's Maud Lewis Elephant

I used to work with Jacinthe, but had no idea all those years ago that she was also a painter. Over the past few months, she's been posting some of her paintings online — then suddenly, this lovely elephant!

Although Jacinthe doesn't consider herself an artist, has never taken art classes, and has never painted or drawn an elephant, on her first attempt she came up with this cheerful and colourful work, called How Can You Tell that an Elephant Has Been in Your Garden?

Jacinthe says the painting was inspired by two things. The first was the old joke, "How can you tell that an elephant has been in your refrigerator? By the footprints in the butter." Which she then extrapolated to "How can you tell that an elephant has been in your garden? By the footprints in the buttercups!"

The second was the work of Canadian artist Maud Lewis. In the late 1990s, when Jacinthe was a communications officer at the Canadian Museum of History, the exhibition The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis was one of her files. As Jacinthe says:

What a privilege it was to learn more about this wonderful person and artist. Her works exhibit an extraordinary use of colour, and it always fascinated me that she did not only paint on canvas. Her works of art also brightened her home — on her front door, on a dustpan, on a baking tin, and even on the shells of Digby scallops. In my home I have a framed copy of the exhibition poster to remind me that it is the simple things in life that are the most beautiful.

Maud Lewis (1903–1970) is one of Canada's best-known and best-loved folk artists. Born in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, she learned to paint as a child, when her mother taught her to make watercolour Christmas cards.

Two Oxen in Spring, no date
Maud Lewis (1903–1970)
Oil on board
Private Collection
Source: Westbridge Fine Art

Maud suffered from rheumatoid arthritis early in life, and lived with her parents until she was in her early thirties. At the age of 34, Maud married a fish pedlar named Everett Lewis. She began accompanying Everett on his daily rounds, selling fish door to door, while also selling her hand-drawn and hand-painted Christmas cards for 25 cents apiece — a fairly good price at the time.

Maud's cards proved so popular with her husband's customers that she branched out into other subject matter. Painting on everything from beaverboard to cookie sheets, Maud began producing bright and cheerful scenes of flowers, animals, and outdoor scenes. Her husband encouraged her, buying her a set of oil paints, and Maud soon covered every available surface in their tiny home.

Interior of Maud Lewis's home.
Collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Source: Saskatchewan Craft Council

Interestingly, Maud never mixed colours, instead using them directly out of the tube. Her paintings are usually no bigger than 8 x 10 inches (20 x 25 cm), although a few top out at 24 x 36 inches (61 x 91 cm).

Road Block, ca. 1962
Maud Lewis (1902–1970)
Oil on board
Private Collection
Source: Mayberry Fine Art

Sadly, Maud would live most of her life in poverty. By 1945, people were stopping at her home to buy paintings for two or three dollars. Even towards the end of her life — despite national exposure in print and broadcast media — her paintings were still selling for only about ten dollars apiece, and her arthritis prevented her from producing as many works as she might have wished. Today, her paintings routinely sell for $20,000 or more.

Black Kittens, ca. 1964
Maud Lewis (1903–1970)
Oil on board
Private Collection
Source: Mayberry Fine Art

During the last year of her life, Maud stayed in a corner of her house — the same tiny home she and Everett had always owned — painting frequently between trips to the hospital. She died on July 30, 1970. Everett was killed nine years later, when a burglar murdered him during an attempted robbery. The Lewis house quickly began to deteriorate. Fortunately, a group of concerned local citizens saved the landmark, and in 1984 it was transferred to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, where it has been restored as part of a permanent Maud Lewis exhibit.

The home shared by Maud and Everett Lewis, reconstructed inside the
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
Source: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

I like that Jacinthe channelled Maud Lewis for her elephant painting, and I think she did an amazing job capturing the essence of Lewis's work. Jacinthe is genuinely one of the nicest and most cheerful people I've ever met, and the bright colours and simple composition of this painting make me happy every time I look at it — partly because they remind me of her sunny personality.

Elephant Lore of the Day

Today's elephant lore comes courtesy of my artist friend Lynn Owen, who posted this photograph with the caption, "If Sheila had a baby elephant." She definitely has me pegged.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick and baby elephant, 1960s.
Source: Tumblr

The original photograph is actually of Dame Daphne Sheldrick, who has dedicated her entire adult life to the welfare of orphaned elephants. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (named for her late husband) near Nairobi, Kenya, rehabilitates traumatized elephant calves before returning them to the wild.

At the Wildlife Trust, orphaned baby elephants are kept in a stable each night. These are elephants that are still too young and too milk-dependent to be permanently returned to the wild. Because the babies need to be fed at three-hour intervals, keepers sleep in bunks above each elephant's stall. A different keeper is assigned each night to prevent the elephants — and keepers — from becoming too attached.

Although the elephants remain nonchalant about different keepers, they are quite firm on feeding times. When speaking with National Geographic writer Charles Siebert in 2011, one keeper commented that there was no need for an alarm clock to know when it was time for night feedings. Every three hours, the elephants would reach up their trunks and pull the blankets off of the keepers sleeping above them.

To read more about Dame Daphne Sheldrick, check out her autobiography, Love, Life and Elephants: An African Love Story. For more on the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, please click here.


Orphaned elephant calf with keeper, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Nairobi, Kenya. Source: David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

To Support Elephant Welfare

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand)

Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)
Wildlife SOS (India)
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)