Six and a Half Elephants

The festival sight at the Ernakulam temple grounds

Before I even begin to elaborate upon anything related to this picture, I urge you to click on the image above and study the enlarged version of the painting with as much care as possible. Pay attention to the details, if you would, because anything less would be a disservice to the artist that created it... a truly ingenious six year old at that. And let's face it dear friends... we cannot, as denizens of this noisy world of the mundane and the unimaginative, afford to miss an opportunity to get a real glimpse into anything extraordinary now, can we? 

Maybe with some effort we could even, for a few brief moments at the very least, try and see what he saw... share his unique vision of this world of ours and revel in the wonders of a beautiful mind.

Did you do it, dear reader? Are you sure? Then let's get started because there is a lot to say now, isn't there? Bear with me...

Let's begin at the beginning then, with caution of course. What are we seeing here? This would be the first obvious question that comes to the mind of anyone unfamiliar with the culture and sights of that small but rather colorful state tucked away in the very south of India called Kerala, that is now undoubtedly proud to call itself the land which Edmund Thomas Clint called home. 

The painting depicts a festival occasion called Pooram, which generally is a very vibrant and jubilant event steeped in tradition, devotion, ritualistic celebration and a plethora of accompanying characteristics. As you can imagine, this would be a sensory delight to the impressionable and curious mind of any young child.

The story behind..

And so, it came to be that at six years of age, Clint found himself witnessing this particular one at the grounds of the Ernakulam Temple grounds, in the arms of his devoted parents M T Joseph and Chinnamma Joseph, who took turns holding up their son in spite of the daunting heat of the midday sun. 

To their credit, amid the thick, bustling crowd they stood for no reason other than so their son could soak in the magnificent sight before him. Not a singular act by his parents though, it must be said. Even now, more than three decades later, an arguably noble humility born of love and a steadfast belief in the unseen hand of providence, still forbid his parents from claiming any share in the legacy of their genius son. We must though, in good conscience, be grateful to them as well one supposes, for what the world gained through the talent of Clint.

A spark of brilliance might well have been birthed by nature or divine intervention, but it is abundant nurture and nourishment indeed that helped fan it into the bright flame that shines upon us till this day through these pieces of art.

And now onto the painting itself.

It was roughly a day after he saw this sight that Clint sat down to do what at that point in his life had become as natural as breathing to him. He had to paint it, one would imagine. There was no other way around it. His photographic memory was one of the most formidable weapons in his arsenal, which helped him tangle with such visually complicated material. For the purposes of appreciation, let us break down the important elements that cry out for attention in this piece... from my layman's perspective at least.

Perspective

This is perhaps the most telling aspect of this painting. If you have studied it by now, you would notice that the there are six and half decorated, festival elephants shown in the picture. The last one disappearing midway out of the frame. Take a moment, if you will, and think why.

There is clearly space on the far left, and Clint was a master of spatial use in his work. He could have very easily filled the frame with all six elephants in complete view. Why not then?

Because one suspects, Clint was drawing this almost entirely from his memory of the event with of course, judicious use of his imagination when it came to the little details possibly. Here's why I am forced to make this assumption..

The painting is more like a photograph than anything else. The free space on the left and the partly disappearing elephant on the right signifies his actual physical view from where he was standing. The other fact that supports this theory is that the colors of the outfits of the people in the crowd, which starts out in detail and bright colors nearer to the point of view of the scene. As in, if we imagine Clint sitting in the arms of his upright parents standing somewhere in the back of the crowd, the people closer to him would have more detail in his vision and they would fade away as they got farther from him, wouldn't they?

Depth of Field

What one usually does when one sits down to paint something, as an untrained artist of course, is to decide what the object or objects of attention in the picture would be. We would normally then focus our energies on painting that portion with as much detail as possible while leaving the rest with just  enough detail to fit in, but not overpower the impact or effect of the main object(s). At least, this is how an enthusiastic amateur goes about it in most cases. But Clint surprises us again..

In this painting, would you care to venture what, if any, is supposed to be the center of attention? Of course, we would think the elephants have to be the curiosity here, and they are.. but not in terms of the painting. 

Clint has given equal visual importance through very selective use of colors to the people in the crowd who stood near him, the elephants who aligned in formation at the center, the high roof of the temple some distance behind them, and then the vast expanse of clear blue sky.

Four layers of objects are presented before us, if you consider a linear depth of field. Each one given prominence so that the picture takes on an almost three dimensional look and feel.

How did a six year old child know how to create such an effect through something so simple? Sigh. We might just have to accept that troubling fact that somethings, maybe, we are never meant to know.

Fading Colours

Analyse just the crowds and you would find it remarkable that Clint knew without any hesitation how to spread the colours around so that the crowd looks as 'real' as possible. Now, that sounds slightly vague but you need only look at the picture, dear reader, to see what I mean.

He has created a sort of tapering effect in terms of shades, almost reminiscent of the view through a curved lens. His masterful choice here was to use the more gaudy colours for the centre section of the crowd, while using darker colours to the right and fading lighter colours to the left.

The stunning colour of the gold on the elephants is another brilliant manipulation of hues to create an effect of realism.



So... in conclusion, after much pondering, one has to submit willingly before the fact that there is nothing much left for us to do here except appreciate, admire and in our hearts, give a standing ovation in that theatre of legends passed, to the extraordinary prodigy that was Edmund Thomas Clint.