"Her painting style reflects her early years in the wild for her brush strokes are vigorous..."

Arum was born in the wild in 1973 and arrived at Way Kambas National Park in South Sumatra ten years later. She began her career giving rides and entertaining local tourists in the park before immigrating to Bali in February 1997.

Her painting style reflects her early years in the wild, for her brush strokes are vigorous, sometimes nearly dislodging the easel. Komar and Melamid compare her artistic temperament and style to that of great abstract expressionist artists. See the Elephant Art gallery!

For centuries, elephants earned their keep by hauling trees for Asia's logging industry.  Deforestation and logging restrictions led to massive unemployment for the elephants, with the result that many, dependent on keepers who could no longer afford to care for them, simply died of neglect.  With fewer and fewer elephants surviving in South and South-East Asia, Asian elephants are now on the endangered species list. 

To reverse this trend, dedicated men and women throughout South and South-East Asia have created various sanctuaries for elephants, striving to preserve this majestic species.  Now, aided by members of the international art community and conservationists, these sanctuaries have trained a handful of elephants in the delicate art of painting - as one way to help the animals help themselves, raising funds as well as awareness.

The elephants' paintings, compared by some critics to the works of such great abstract expressionist artists as Jackson Pollock, Williem de Kooning and Franz Kline, have been exhibited internationally and have fetched thousands of dollars apiece at Christie's auction house.

Interestingly, elephants commonly pass time by doodling on the ground with sticks and pebbles.  "Teaching them to draw rewards that behavior, using different tools," suggests New York art historian Mia Fineman.  Fineman believes that the idea that only humans can create art is an "artificial construct" of the art world.  "Elephants are motivated by something beyond functionality," Ms Fineman said, "and this is called art."
 

By making the Asian elephants' paintings widely accessible to the general public, Bali Adventure Tours hopes to help increase awareness, encourage conservation, and raise significant funds to assist endangered elephants throughout Asia.

Grab this opportunity to own a unique work of art and help support one of Asia’s most endangered and forgotten species. Click on the link below to view the range of Elephant artisan works and help save a Sumatran elephant.