The Elephant who paints

The Maesa Elephant Camp in Chiang Mai, Thailand has an elephant who can paint better than some "artists" I know. I think these pictures are legitimate.




To me, this is possible because elephants are pretty smart and they can take directions pretty well. What is probably happening is the elephant has been taught to make the brush strokes. I don't think that the elephant pictured a tree in his mind and figured he would recreate it, Its highly probable that the trainers have taught him how to do this.

Whats really freaky though is it looks like he is trying to write words and stuff in some of the other pictures. I would LOVE to know what he is trying to communicate, haha.




the price tag on the one in the middle says 4500 Baht, which is around 150 US Dollars. Is this real, Manipulated, or downright fake? thoughts?

Elephant who never forgets.....to kill....











[edit on 13-5-2010 by drsmooth23]

Originally posted by drsmooth23
Elephant who never forgets.....to kill....[/url]

haha is that a futurama reference?

came across these pictures a few days ago, wish i could see a video of the act, otherwise its hard to say if its real or staged.

I saw this on YouTube and didn't know what to think of it either.

Like you I thought they might have taught him the brush strokes, or the few paintings.

What I'd like to see is his gallery.

He does this almost daily, and should have hundreds if not thousands of paintings out there.

If they are all of the same 10-20 pictures, he's a fake.

If they are all reasonably different, we have underestimated nature to the fullest.

Here is a video of an elephant making a self portrait...




Flowers





ALRIGHT!!!!!

If you go to the channel the ''Flowers" video is from, the second video, it is a place that sells the portraits.

However, they are all of the same few scenes!!

We have our answer, how long did it take me? lol

[edit on 13-5-2010 by breakingdradles]

reply to post by Alaskan Man


It's real, but it is probably through repetition that it can draw as it always draws the same things, trainer probably made it do it. Still cool though.

Originally posted by Solomons
reply to post by Alaskan Man

 

It's real, but it is probably through repetition that it can draw as it always draws the same things, trainer probably made it do it. Still cool though.

Thats how you learn how to paint or draw.

You can't just pick up a pencil and draw something. Everyone is taught to paint and draw when they are little children. If you ask some dude that lives in the amazon rainforest that has never learned how to hold a pencil to draw, i bet he can't do it.

If you have him draw a circle over and over again he will learn how to draw a circle.

Anything you want to learn you have to practice over and over again. This is truly amazing and shows how smart elephants are. Chimpanzees can't even draw or paint like this, that shows how smart these guys are.

Yes the training has alot to do with it but any good artist will tell you you have to practice over and over.

reply to post by drsmooth23


Utterly Amazing, thanks for posting

reply to post by BeastMaster2012


quite agree, it's not as tho people go to art school is it

On that note, my Partners son just quit art school as he was sick of doing colour wheels, am sure this Elephant can teach him a thing or two about patience



[edit on 13/5/10 by thoughtsfull]

reply to post by BeastMaster2012


Sorry if you misunderstood what i mean, the elephant "has" to paint the same things over and over again...because that's all it knows how to paint if you see what im getting at, let it paint what it wants and it will just be a large, messy blob of colour. Children can atleast paint something that vaguely resembles what they are trying to do...they don't need someone to make them sit and repeat brush strokes over and over again for god knows how long. But yes, elephants are smart i agree, but nowhere near that of chimps and other members of our family.

[edit on 13-5-2010 by Solomons]