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About three o' clock, off the main route from Okeukujo heading east, we came upon this small herd of bull elephants watering at a seepage close to the Etosha Pan in northern Namibia.
I observed these Bull Elephants, as they approached us after watering and a mud bath at a seepage on the edge of Etosha Pan. Their wrinkled skins were glistening in the strong afternoon sunlight. The mud in Etosha Pan is laden with mica which reflects light much like a mirror, so these two jumbos looked ready for a pop concert.
Elephants exhibit a subtle intelligence and a keen sense of humour.
It is a myth that the African elephant cannot be tamed. Hannibal used African elephants in his campaigns against the Romans in Spain and Italy and crossed the Alps twice with 37 of them. Those poor old jumbos must not have had much fun tramping through the snow and ice in the Alpine passes. They were also employed by the Queen of Sheba to erect 500 ton carved stone stellae at Axum in Ethiopia!
The method is that of the Master painters, where each colour is applied in its pure state only, in a series of layers, beginning with a drawing in crayon, an imprimatura heightened in white for the grisaille and then transparent glazes applied thereafter.
The artwork is in Liquitex Acrylics on 15oz canvas
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