Elephant Dust by Alison Nicholls in Port Chester, New York

Elephant Dust by Alison Nicholls in Port Chester, NY.

Nicholls spent 9 years in Botswana and Zimbabwe and it shows in her paintings of African wildlife. Simple, two or three tone paintings seem to be her specialty.

In this particular piece she uses a technique she called “Lost & Found Edges”. I’ll let her explain:

“Lost and found edges are key to creating drama, atmosphere and interest. I use lost edges a great deal. By this I mean edges that fade away, that disappear and do not attract too much attention. In the painting shown above, I used lost edges on the background vegetation because the elephants had kicked up so much dust that the bottom of the trees was obscured. The lost edges of the vegetation mean that the found (hard) edges of the elephants appear much more dramatic. You focus on the elephant silhouettes because the trees are not competing with them for attention.” – Alison Nicholls.

Don’t miss my interview with Alison Nicholls.