Elephants at the Knysna Elephant Sanctuary. The painting fighting with what I had in my mind. I didn’t use the very large canvas, which still rests waiting for its image to emerge.

The composition is based on the diagonal lines across the canvas, with the two elephants in each major quadrant. The focal point sits at the one third position, within the boundaries of the diagonal.

I wanted to push back the background so the elephants would dominate the painting. Smudging the greens of the trees into the wet blue-grey base paint (Cobalt blue and Venice red) and then adding the pale grasses (Raw sienna and Yellow ochre).

For the elephants I added permanent Magenta to the grey mix and used the Ultramarine blue and Madder deep for the dark. I mixed Indian yellow with the purple colours to bring in the hint of morning sunshine.