Elephant Art!

My wife spent the last 2 weeks in Thailand with her nephews who live there and traveled around a bit. One of the things she took pictures of was the Elephant Conservation Camp in Chaeng Mae in Northern Thailand. She told me about seeing the elephants perform and most amazingly, watching them paint!

She said they really took their time and produced paintings that were esthetically pleasing and figurative and abstract. Tonight, quite by coincidence, I ran across a link to the Elephant Art Project. This organization raises money for the Comservation Centers by promoting and selling Elephant Art. They also have books and videos available. There are a number of video clips at the web site.

I found the above clip at YouTube and there are a number more if you are interested.
To watch the elephants paint is really provocative. You can train animals to repeat tricks, but this goes beyond tricks. Each painting is unique and from what I understand, once the elephant begins to learn to paint, they become more and maore involved in the process and improve. They all seem to have a different style.

Just watching the delicate "handling" of the brush is mind blowing!