Hong the elephant artist

[featherlady_jt]

Sure, you've seen elephants make marks on paper before, some turn out some really beautiful abstracts. But have you ever seen one paint figurative work? Or florals? She's really quite good at painting elephants, and at 8 years of age she's only going to get better.

Comments

[growly]

Hoax. They're trained to recreate those designs over and over again.
Shame, isn't it?

[featherlady_jt]

Shame - well, yes and no. It's impressive that she is able to achieve that, trained or not. Are any other species out there able to paint figurative? It's the first time I've seen such.

[theblackdragon]

it says right on that page that the paintings are a series of learned brushstrokes, not something from the elephants' own heads. they're not trying to fool anyone.

[sunhawk]

To me, it doesn't really matter that it's a trained trick, I still think their trunk dexterity is absolutely amazing as is their delicate touch. Thanks for sharing that link, it gives me all sorts of gift ideas!

[featherlady_jt]

Delicate touch, indeed! And her lines are so clean! I'd buy one - especially for what it supports. :)

[datalore]

Didn't we all start out by tracing cartoons? Who knows what they might learn.

[featherlady_jt]

That's what I was thinking. And she paints better than a lot of grade-schoolers I've seen. :)