Sandgrouse, Egrets and Elephants, 1m x 50cm by Andrew Giffen

I find this scene entirely believable; the birds bring movement around the massive shapes of the elephants, the colours and strength of shadow convincingly convey the strength of the sun, the textures are fantastic - obviously you weren't right there at the time; but is this sort of scene well known to you? If not - how on earth have you so completely credibly captured it? This is a masterpiece.

am very grateful for your comment, as always Robert. Thank you! Well I did grow up in South Africa so I do still remember the feel of these scenes, having walked a lot in the bush in my youth. In my preliminary sketches I write out in words the feel of the paintings and desired effects of various parts of it and decide how best to achieve that, so I mull over practicalities like colours and how to approach the texture, what brushes to use, etc. Some of it is trial and error and I try to closely observe artists doing similar things and figure out how. For the anatomy I make extensive use of photos and mix and match. As I still have to hold down a day job, I don't like to waste the time I do manage to get for painting, so I probably plan a lot more before picking up a brush! thanks again!

Stunning Robert!

I just love this, I can smell the hot, the dry, the Africa...I am intrigued by your planning process I think its great . Thankyou for that,.also for this fab painting.

Superb work!!

Fabulous work and an immensely powerful composition.

Beautiful art.