I wanted to paint the immediacy of the moment so I narrowed in on the focus of the elephant—the original photo showed the surroundings. By deleting everything but the elephant and the dust he stirs up you get the idea of his mass and aggression. The churning dust creates the movement and further narrows the focus. The color of the dust also lends to the overall feeling of danger and anger. I feel that this is my best painting to date. It took me less time to produce because I feel that I’m finally experimenting less with technique and focusing more on the composition and story of the painting. This is an exciting time for me. I’m painting more and I like what I paint!
