Tag Archives: African elephant

Oh No – I’m In An Elephant Sandwich!

On safari, its not generally a good sign when someone starts videoing your vehicle, because the chances are you are about to star in a viral YouTube video about a dangerous or scary incident. So when the people in a car in front of us turned around to video us and an elephant, I was not very happy!

We were in Pilanesberg National Park in South Africa and instances of elephants using cars as scratching posts have been fairly common. In the notes on the park map it even says that if you come across a bull elephant walking down a road towards you ‘do not pull over & allow the elephant to pass’ as this may encourage the elephant to take an interest in your car.

One morning we came around a blind corner on a dirt road and found a big bull elephant munching calmly on a bush. After a couple of minutes he started walking down the road, away from us, so we gave him a good head start and slowly followed, as we were going in that direction. This continued for several minutes until a car appeared behind us. They seemed keen to see the elephant, so we let them pass us. They were sensible, not getting too close to the elephant, who was still ambling down the road.

Elephant Sandwich - the 1st Bull. Photo by Nigel Nicholls ©2015

After a few more minutes of our slow procession, my husband looked in the rear view mirror and saw a 2nd bull elephant behind us on the road, coming in our direction. So now there were 4 of us in the procession – in front was the 1st bull, next was the car that passed us, after that was our vehicle, and in the rear was the 2nd bull elephant. Unfortunately, the elephant behind us was moving faster than the 1 in front, so we were slowly being sandwiched together! This continued for a few minutes and as the road contained many blind corners, we kept wondering if we were going to come around and find ourselves between the legs of the 1^st elephant, if he decided to stop for another snack. Luckily for us, he didn’t.

The people in the car in front wondered why we were catching them up, until they saw the bull behind us. This was when they started videoing our vehicle, and I started imagining becoming famous online, for all the wrong reasons!

After a few nervous minutes, the elephant behind us disappeared off the road. Then we came to a junction and the 1^st elephant took the other turn. With our elephant sandwich now broken apart, we decided to stop and have an early lunch!

Until next time…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

African Wildlife Sketch #17 – Browsing Elephants

Watching these browsing elephants was so interesting. They used their feet to dig up roots, picking them up with their trunks, the bashing them on the ground to get rid of the dirt. Then they leaned casually against a small bush and uprooted it completely. A little later, one of these elephants was following us down the road, while another was in front of us, walking away. Yes, we were part of an elephant sandwich! More of that soon, but in the meantime, enjoy these relaxed elephant bulls browsing their way through the African bush!

Browsing Elephants Field Sketch by Alison Nicholls

All my field sketches, are created in Africa directly from life, or sketched back at camp purely from my memory of sightings. They are completely finished in Africa and I use no photos or video reference at any time in their creation. It is always tempting to add finishing touches back in the studio, but I avoid this to ensure that my field sketches really are field sketches.

The Original Field Sketch is watercolor & pencil on watercolor paper, 11×14″, priced at US$300. Limited Edition Giclées are also available, priced at US$120 each. Only 10 copies are available, printed using archival inks on watercolor paper, 14×11″, all signed and numbered by me.

A donation will be made to African conservation from every sale.

Until Nov 22, I will be sharing 1 of my new African field sketches every day. The new sketches are shown to my newsletter readers a full day before they are shown here. Click here to Join my Mailing List and see the sketches as soon as they are released, or see them here 1 day later.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Tomorrow’s sketch is of Mana Pools in Zimbabwe.
Until then…
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

African Field Sketch #2: Elephant Drinking by Alison Nicholls

Sketching a drinking elephant from this angle can be difficult, as you can see straight into the elephant’s mouth, and there is some serious foreshortening on the trunk. But I decided to go ahead, and I thought the 2nd elephant, facing the opposite direction, made this an interesting composition. The browns and greens reflect the colors of the water in the muddy waterhole, and there is always a blacksmith lapwing (plover) present at every waterhole, so I added him too.

Drinking Field Sketch by Alison Nicholls

This Original Field Sketch is watercolor & pencil on watercolor paper, 11×14″, priced at US$300. Limited Edition Giclées are also available, priced at US$120 each. Only 10 copies are available, printed using archival inks on watercolor paper, 11×14″, all signed and numbered by me.

A donation will be made to African conservation from every sale.

Wherever and whenever you see them, I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
Tomorrow you will see Painted Dogs (African wild dogs)!
Take care
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com