SOMJAI'S BIO:

Somjai was born in 1993. In his fourteen years, Somjai has grown into a gentle giant. He is a friendly, social elephant and enjoys playing with his elephant buddies. He was introduced to painting at age 10.

It was four years ago that Somjai began painting lessons with his trainer, Noi. Somjai was a natural and soon learned to paint flowers. However, he loves his elephant friends so much that it came as no surprise when he quickly used his skills to paint elephants. He now creates stunning, realistic pictures of his fellow pachyderms. His friends surely inspire him. Somjai's talent is as big as his heart, and we can't wait to see more from him.

These realistic figural works exemplify the amazing control of Somjai but are indeed more of a collaboration with the elephant's mahout and art teacher than are the abstract pieces. The elephant is still the only one making the marks on the paper but these figural paintings are learned series of brushstrokes.