Tembo

“Tembo” is Richard’s latest full size oil painting of an African bull Elephant. Since drawing several full size tigers, horses and lions it was Richard’s ambition and dream to paint a full size elephant. Following his latest safari in South Africa earlier this year, he came across a herd of elephant with their young and was able to get extremely close to study these magnificent animals in the wild. With all the material and reference he needed, he returned to his studio to start the mammoth task of painting his giant. In February 2005 and after building a canvas 15 feet by 11.5 feet, Richard started the first few brush strokes on this huge painting. 500 painstaking hours and 1 litre of oil paint later, Tembo was finished.

“As with most of the work that I do, I love the effect you get with just using tones without the fuss and complication of colour, and I believe for a project of this size that the sepia oil is highly effective. I am as always honoured that Virginia Mckenna and her Born Free Foundation are helping in the publicity of “Tembo” and I am delighted to donate a percentage of the sale from the painting to the foundation.”