Art

Item Description

Alpana Ahuja’s brand new Padhchinh collection of 2018 sees her working with 3 new elephants, but Phoolkali remains her favourite co artist!
Phoolkali knows her job, she is patient and stays calm, placing her foot exactly where her mahout guides it to.
This Padhchinh in a mix of blue/green background with light orange and red background with darker footprints. There are 5 Phoolkali footprints on this scroll. There aren't many of these scrolls that exist so it's truly a unique and rare item! 

About the artist:

This 'Padchinh' is an original footprint of Phoolkali, a rescued elephant at the Wildlife SOS, Elephant Conservation and Care Center in India. 
This is a collaborative work of Phoolkali the elephant and Singapore-based India-born artist, Alpana Ahuja, who worked closely for several months with Wildlife SOS to understand the challenges Indian elephants face in the wild and in captivity.

Alpana said, “I was moved to tears when I saw the plight of the elephants, but I was filled with hope when I saw the efforts made by NGO Wildlife SOS to heal and protect these elephants. I decided to take the help of art to raise awareness and funds to help the elephants in India."

This painting is unique, special and original and was created with tremendous patience, subject entirely to Phoolkali's decision to participate in the process, largely influenced by bananas, dates and other treats!  Alpana painted the background and Phoolkali stepped on the canvas to leave her footprint.  

No cruelty or negative conditioning was used in the creation of this painting.

 

THE PADHCHINH STORY

The 'Padhchinh' paintings are a unique piece of art, born of the collaboration of Alpana Ahuja and the rescued elephants at Wildlife SOS in 2014, as part of the artists' efforts to support the elephant community. Translating into 'footprint' in Sanskrit, it symbolizes the elephants' march towards a better future. Leaving behind their chains and abused pasts, the elephants forge new friendships and bask in the love and care they are showered with at the Wildlife SOS' Elephant Care and Conservation Centre (ECCC) at Mathura, India. 100% of proceeds from this series go to the Wildlife SOS ECCC.

The first Padhchinhs were created by Elephant Phoolkali. Each footprint was taken with tremendous patience, subject entirely to Phoolkali's decision to participate in the process, largely influenced by bananas and other treats! She continues to be a very patient and cooperative elephant, but is sometimes moody and trumpets for her best friend Maya to join her, who is quick to respond and obeys. Their mahout, Asim oversees the creation of each Padhchinh, signaling for breaks for the elephants to bond over their treats.

Baby elephant, Peanut is another volunteer Alpana has worked with. A curious and enthusiastic participant, Peanut is a jumpy one, sometimes creating multiple footprints on a single canvas. Her artistic ability also translates into the playful whips she throws on her mahout, Gulzaar and the artist, with her tail. One lucky canvas even has a mark of her tail 'whipping' across it. Some other Padhchinhs have bits of grass or leaves embedded in them, on some very special occasions - elephant poop (yes!). The artist tries to preserve these bits of nature as they are an integral part of the elephants environment. Each piece is a unique burst of hues and the varying pressure of the elephants foot on canvas creates patterns of colour that cannot be recreated with a brush. The process involves a preparation of backgrounds on canvas and is foregrounded by the elephant footprints. It ends off with a scrubbing of the elephants foot, so as to remove every bit of paint applied.

The purchase of this item can feed Phoolkali for two weeks!

Item Special Note

Padhchinh- 2
64”X 42”
Acrylic on canvas
Phoolkali- 2013

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