Watching TV yesterday tea time I had a deja vu. On the screen was a painting like this one, so linked to my childhood that I had to stop eating and sit up. It showed a herd of elephants relaxing in the African bush and looking straight ahead, as if they were staring at a camera. The TV informed me that it was by one David Sheppard, Britain's greatest living artist.
I knew it was by David Sheppard when I saw it, as I'd read his name a thousand times on the bottom of the picture just above the white Sixties cheesy frame. It wasn't my picture, it was my Brother Steve's, hanging proudly in his bedroom above his stereo and LP rack. Being older than me I would stare in his room with awe and wonder. This was the lair of a teenager and as such had to be respected and envied in equal measure. Those Sheppard elephants would say to me; "You may gawp at us but you'll never understand, not like you're big brother!"
I can honestly say I loved those elephants but for the life of me I can't be certain which picture it was. Having googled the artist it would seem he liked the pachyderm and painted them with gusto at various points in elephant family life: single bulls, pairs and entire clans! He did the same with lions, which are equally as arresting. I shall have to ask my brother what happened to his own elephants!
Does anyone else have a childhood painting [s] they stared at in awe?
Before scrolling down to your text, I was instantly reminded of the book 'King Solomon's Mines' by H. Rider Haggard (scene where angry bull Elephant destroys hunting party). Excellent painting and yes, we had a large painting/copy titled "City" that I would sit an gaze at the endless detail (all in sharp perspective and colour) of a block of city life.
ReplyDeleteMine was(and still is as far as I know)hanging in the Philadelphia Art Museum,the museum that Rocky used as part of his training routine.The painting was of a gorilla holding a colorful beach ball.it looked so realistic that I mistook it for a photograph at first.But for the record,anything by Frank Frazzeta or Boris Vallejo is likely to put me in a trance.
ReplyDeletewe had one of those ubiquitous paintings of the lissom, tanned amazon lady reclining against the tree. Kind of Kim Kardashian meets Rousseau.
ReplyDeletethose long tanned legs and barely concealed cleavage had a profound effect on my formative years...