Elephant Painting

[Rasverix82]

i love lephants the painting is cool

[southafrica4sale]

they can paint better than i can...WOW lol

[alanagan]

Sometimes,with the first brush stroke of a painting, the painter waves the brush, in contemplation,as they DECIDE what they want to paint.

I saw the elephant do this. Also, at some point, you step back, to get a sense of your painting's progress. The elephant did this too.

I hope these elephants are treated like royalty, because they are magnificant creatures that should be loved and respected. I hope that they,re not exploited in any way.I love elephants. This is divine intervention.

[xcmet]

thats ah stupid elephant!

[cawmhc11]

Also, they aren't chained up and painting all day. They mostly have free range (at night they are put on very long chains to be able to roam around and what not) and are often taken into the jungle for cute little vacations.

[cawmhc11]

PanthsValhalla -

I have been to this center as well. The elephants are not, in fact, slaves. The center was started by the queen and her daughter to help the elephants that were domesticated for teak logging when it was banned. Without the center, the elephants would not have been able to survive or they would destroy towns, cities, and the environment upon reaching certain levels of maturity. Believe me, I would have never gone there if it were a cruel place.

[PanthsValhalla]

They are not just 'robots', they are slaves... its sad. It is in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Been the exact same place. The Elephant's keeper is the one painting, steering the elephant by a hold in the ear. I had a hard time watching this, because they use hooks (torn into the skin as punishment) to get the elephants to do what they want.

[charcolo]

How is the training done? this being a 2 dimensional surface proves their ability to visually translate differences in dimension and in subject matter Has anyone interviewed a trainer who is willing to explain how this is accomplished. .

[suchandradasi]

This is so romantic. It's like a beautiful story. The elephants paint beautiful pictures to protect themselves from poachers.

[cayce88]

They may be trained to paint the same pictures and all but still, it's pretty AMAZING that they can do what most humans can't. That just proves how intelligent they are. I wish we would respect their majesty more. You know buying the paintings probably pays for their food and protection. Its not perfect but better than being slaughtered by poachers.

[Fiskilisken]

that tree is beautiful

[animalliberation0961]

This is the exact reason why animals in circuses should be outlawed!!! Just because we're too stupid to figure them out doesn't mean they're 'dumb'.

[silvercity777]

AMEN

[charcolo]

Because they are intelligent they are likely to enjoy doing this activity. . As long as they are not mistreated otherwise, I

think painting pictures could be stimulating and enjoyable for them. Charu

[cmburke7]

nope, it's real, as said it's in Chaing Mai, you can buy the paintings for about 2000 bhat too. I preferred to feed the elephants bananas for 60 bhat myself :)

[bachez07]

whoa

[hollymsacd]

its photoshopped

[bunchamalarky]

Go and see for yourself. I wouldn't have thought it true either, until I saw it with my own eyes. I stayed at thailandcottage dot com (the Bua Saree) - I'd recommend you stay there when you go to Chiang Mai to check my veracity. :)

[StarFeuri]

Don't be ridiculous. It is true that I am sure these elephants are trained to paint trees and more plant like images, whereas, left to their own devices, they produce more free form things like KoKo. But it's still amazing that they can do different brush strokes and that every painting is different despite the obvious conditioning.

You must not know a darn thing about photoshop if you think that was.

[Rick88888888]

Such comments should not be made if you don't know what you're talking about.

Last week we saw these animals paint with our own eyes and it is truely amazing. Whoever dares to say that animals have no consciousness, no emotion and no souls should be locked up. Clearly Rene Descartes (two centuries ago) got it totally wrong by claiming that animals are "automata".

[P3NIX]

These elephants are just robots. I watched them paint for several hours outside a restaurant in Thailand. I was going to buy a whole stack of them, but then I realized that each elephant just paints the same pictures over and over again.

[P3NIX]

These elephants are just robots. I watched them paint for several hours outside a restaurant in Thailand. I was going to buy a whole stack of them, but then I realized that each elephant just paints the same pictures over and over again.

[jelleoelle]

EXACTLY. Well, I wouldn't say they are robots, but buying these paintings is nothing but supporting exploitations of elephants. They are in captivity, even though you don't see them chained up, and they paint all day long.

[Fiskilisken]

they are chained up... ='(

[cutebunny69]

wow.. how cool is that !