Elephants:

James and I lead photographic and natural history trips to Kenya. One of the places that we stay is Samburu Reserve in North Kenya. This is a terrific place with lots of game viewing, even during our lunch breaks. This is right outside our lodge where there are always lots of wildlife in the river. In this photo I am with one of the guests on our trip standing right on the bank of the river with a matriarchal herd of elephants behind us.

This painting is going to be the largest painting I have ever done. It is 36 x 48", and it is a commission. Since it is a commission, I did a proposal with a sketch to be approved. This is the original sketch. You will see that as the painting progressed, some minor changes were made. This happens. As I am doing a painting it will start to get a life of its own, dictating to me what needs to be added or subtracted. In this case the bottom of the elephant going off the page on the far right was removed, and the area of the herd on the left was slightly rearranged.

I do a drawing to scale so that I can transfer bits and pieces as necessary to the original. It is taped to the top of the painting with masking tape "hinges". This stage took me a tremendous amount of time as it is such a large drawing!

I have used an artist masking material and cellophane to cover and protect the area where the elephants are going to be painted so that I will have a clean smooth surface to paint them on.

This painting is so large it required me to make quite a few changes in the layout of my studio, as well as how I paint. To do the large strokes necessary to do the background required me to stand (I usually sit to paint). My feet started hurting, so I had to go and buy some foam pads to stand on!

Here I am laying in the background water and sand bars.

The far background has been essentially completed and the masking materials have been removed from the elephants.

I have blocked in the elephants with a dark brown/purple paint and then transferred the drawing with a white artist transfer paper.

I do an off white underpainting to create an "organic" texture to the elephants skin. This is done using a brush, and crumpled cellophane.

I have done a unifying brown wash over the off white "texture" that I painted.

Here the lead elephant is completed and her reflection is started in the river.

I have now completed the small calf that is second in line. I have gone ahead and done the reflections of all the elephants so I can see how the foreground is going to balance out the painting.

I have done the off white undertexture of the back elephant. Notice that I have put masking fluid on the elephant in front of her to protect it from any paint "over".

In this photo that back elephant and the one if front of her have been completed. The far left one that just has a bit of head showing has had the texture painted on, and now has the unifying brown wash over it. Some of the reference photos I'm working from can be seen on the left.

In the evenings I bring the painting I'm working on into our living room and put it on the fireplace hearth, so that I can look at it and decide what I need to do to it. I usually try to put it into its frame as well, since the frame becomes part of the "experience" when viewing the painting - creating both an edge and a continuity to the painting. In looking at the painting, I decided that I wanted to add some birds. As I mentioned early on, paintings take on a life of their own, dictating to me things that need to be taken away or added. The more I looked at the painting, the more I felt strongly that, not only from a natural history point of view - you never see a river without birds - but also compositionally, some birds would add some interest. Stay tuned to see what I decide to do!!

I've decided I want a flock of small birds flying over the top of the elephants. The most logical choice is African Mourning doves, as they are always seen in large groups around rivers. I have to do some research about the markings, coloration and size before I begin doing the drawings. This photo shows some of the reference and research material I am using - including a mount of an American Mourning dove which has many similarities to its African cousin.

To try to decide the placement of the birds I have done some "cutouts" and tried different placements for them.

Here are the doves completed.

I am now detailing out the bank of sand in the foreground. I want to add a little detail and texture so that your eye tells you it is closer to you - thus giving depth to the painting. Here I am using a toothbrush to "spatter" paint drops to give the impression of sand. Because this is so messy I have covered the rest the painting with newspaper.

Here is the final painting. Notice that I ended up adding more birds - two cattle egrets in the foreground. I thought they added more interest and depth, and the composition of the repetitive "arrow" or "V" shapes create movement. This original as mentioned is sold, but plans are in the works for two sizes of giclée canvas prints. "RIVER CROSSING", Elephants - Africa, 36 x 48".