I have spent countless hours sitting quietly at the edge of African waterholes, and there is something about a herd of elephants coming down to drink that puts everything else in perspective. They arrive unhurried, almost reverent, as if the water itself demands respect.
This piece came from time in the Okavango Delta, one of the last places on earth where elephant herds still move the way they have for thousands of years, following ancient paths to permanent water. I wanted to capture the sheer scale of thirst in a herd this size, elephants can drink over fifty gallons in a single visit, and I painted them stacked close together, trunks dipping and curling in that late afternoon light that turns the water the color of dark tea.
I titled this painting Big Drinkers of the Okavango because that is exactly what I witnessed, generation after generation of elephants who know this place, who return to it, who depend on it completely.
