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Devi the zoo elephant has a lot to trumpet about as she prepares to hold her maiden art exhibition
A jumbo stroke
By Mahangu Weerasinghe
Devi is an amateur artist about to hold her maiden exhibition. She has spent the past six months finishing up over 20 creations using both canvas and acrylic, paper and tempera. She has worked hard to maintain a correct balance of colour, composition and tone. She occasionally gets sick of painting, and at times needs to be spoken to by her teacher.

Yes, in many ways, she sounds just like any another amateur artist. Well, apart from the fact that she eats kilos of sugarcane daily and goes by the scientific name Elephus Maximus, that is.

"Paint Devi, paint," coaxes Lori, patting the young animal on the trunk. Amazingly, the elephant responds, and gripping the brush in her trunk proceeds to work it across the canvas. Slowly, with the help of Lori and other mahouts, Devi's painting evolves into a creation with feeling, form and colour. We all watch in amazement at the elephant's concentration and focus, and marvel at the control she has over her brush. Seeing Devi paint is truly a phenomenal experience.

Lori Forster, an Environmental Scientist working for the government of Canada took unpaid leave to come to Sri Lanka and pursue her dream of helping the Asian Elephant. Working as a volunteer at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, she received the necessary training as a mahout. She then went on to establish Elephants In Need, a charity that looks at helping elephants in the wild.

Lori's present work at the Dehiwala National Zoo has been primarily focused on training Devi, a young elephant of 22 years, to paint, using acrylics and tempera colours. "She's a good girl," says Lori fondly, "one of the most responsive elephants I've worked with." Lori went on to explain that Devi was a remarkably quick learner and progressed at a much faster rate than first expected.

"We started with paper and tempera, and I just let her practise for the first few months," explains Lori, who says that Devi is now able to paint well even on canvas with acrylic. Devi, who has a passive personality, has worked hard to finish her 24 paintings over the past few months.

"I spend ten or 20 minutes talking to her before each session," says Lori, who explains that elephants too have mood swings just like humans. "The other mahouts first found it hard to understand why I spent so much time with her before and after each lesson," says Lori, "but now they understand that it's an important part of the entire procedure."

Elephants who paint are apparently not entirely a new phenomenon. "Researchers found some time back that wild elephants draw with their trunks in the sand," relates Lori, who says that it was after this find that environmentalists decided to give captive elephants the chance to express themselves with paint.

"Elephants in Thailand have been painting for years," says Lori, who also speaks of Lucy, an elephant at the Edmonton Zoo whom she worked with before her arrival in Sri Lanka. "In Thailand especially, after the ban on elephant labour, painting has become a primary source of income for mahouts, who use the proceeds from the sale of the paintings to keep their animals alive," says Lori. Painting is a way that "elephants can help themselves”.

"Painting is also a way to keep captive elephants stimulated and engaged," states Lori, who stresses the importance of letting elephants be expressive. "I keep notes on Devi, and how she reacts to her painting in different surroundings, under different weather conditions and moods." She firmly believes that elephants too are capable of conscious personal expression. "The elephant is an intelligent animal, it's just the fact that there is a communication gap between us and them," says Lori.

Speaking to The Sunday Times about Elephants In Need and the work they carry out for elephants in Sri Lanka, Lori says they have an annual fund raising event in Canada which includes auctions of paintings and awareness programmes on elephants. "The last 150 years have seen the wild elephant population in Sri Lanka shrink from approximately 20,000 animals to around 3000 today," says Lori, stressing the importance of protecting this dwindling population.

Proceeds for conservation
Elephants In Need will hold its first Sri Lankan elephant-painting exhibition from July 21 to 27 at the Paradise Road Galleries, 2 Alfred House Road, Colombo 3. The exhibition will be open everyday from 10 a.m. to midnight and will feature 24 paintings by Devi.

The event is sponsored by Paradise Road Galleries, and all proceeds from the sale of paintings will go toward the conservation of the Sri Lankan elephant.

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