Wild Horizons

Painting with the Elephants

by Libby White

Wild Horizons and Art of Africa have teamed up to create a unique elephant experience that is brought to life with the swift strokes of your fingertips beneath the bright African sun. As someone who is remarkably inartistic, even among inartistic people, I was rather hesitant to try out 'Painting with the Elephants' (Wild Horizons Elephant Art), but the lure of spending a few hours with these majestic animals was enough to convince me. Accompanied by my equally inartistic son Josh, we eagerly joined the group of wannabe artists. We were met by Manda, manager at the Wallow, who chatted to us about the elephants and their history. After feeding and touching our ‘models’ we all made our way down to the adjacent waterhole surrounded by an enticing ring of sticky mud.

Under the shade of an enormous Mopane tree, 6 easels - each prepared with a fresh sheet of paper waited for us, along with chairs with brightly coloured aprons and two young and friendly artists eagerly inviting us to sit. Palettes with bright splotches of paint were handed out to us and under the expert tuition of KK and Tich, we were off! In a few moments, our white sheets of paper were transformed by a glorious blue sky, sunshine yellow grass and of course the elephants in front of us, using just our fingers.

It felt surreal to be sitting not twenty metres from these magnificent creatures as they frolicked and rolled in the chocolate mud and sprayed each other with water. Beautiful, individualistic scenes emerged from the other more talented artists in our group. Understanding our considerable limitations in the artistic arena KK and Tich were quick to come to our aid, encouraging us and giving us tips on how to transform our dubious brown splotches into realistic looking elephants.

With the pressure taken off us, Josh and I were able to relax and appreciate the experience for all that it is. We laughed constantly – not only at each other’s efforts to capture the warthogs that came down to join the elephants - but with the sheer pleasure of being out in the bush together sharing such a unique experience. Eventually, after several repeated pleas to finish up, we reluctantly left the elephants playing in the mud and went up for lunch.

A delicious two-course meal, accompanied by a crisp glass of white wine, rounded off our experience perfectly. Later, proudly clutching our ‘masterpieces’, we were driven back into town by Wild Horizons.