The gentle giant is widely revered in the Indian subcontinent. It is known for its wild strength and calm and wisdom of its demeanour. During important festivals of the Hindu calendar, it is common practice to bathe elephants and adorn them with the finest silks and freshly plucked flowers. The painting that you see on this page is of a decorated mother and child whose presence would add to the charm of, say, the rathayatra of Odisha or the Onam procession of Kerala.
The great blue body of the mother elephant predominates the canvas. Her ample belly is tattooed with miniscule pristine flowers. On her back is a chequered fabric woven in vibrant pastel tones and on her head is an equally colourful crown of silk. Her gigantic ears have been dyed with organic vermillion, her eyes defined by thick black lines of kohl. At the tip of her trunk which she gracefully raises above her head is a tiny red flower.
Her little calf is trotting between her legs. It is black in colour, as lovingly bedecked as her, and has the same eyes as its mother. It raises its tiny trunk and arches it backward such that the tip grazes the soft skin along the inner trunk of the mother. The background is densely packed with verdure and flowers in vivid red and yellow. Such a work of folk art would add to a world of colour and a rustic quality to the space of any art lover.
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