I was so pleased to be asked to design the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust annual Christmas card this year, which is now available to buy from the SWT online store. Any excuse to paint elephants and I’ll take it! For the design, I really wanted to capture the strong bond that develops between an elephant and their keeper. As all the elephants at the SWT are orphans, the keepers fast become their surrogate mothers, even sleeping with the elephants in their stables at night so that they feel safe. The Maasai blankets that the elephants wear are used to keep the elephants warm at night and to protect them from getting sunburnt in the day and have become quite synonymous with the SWT.
Hopefully the final Christmassy nighttime scene captures the magic of the work that the SWT do. The cards are printed onto responsibly-sourced FSC-certified board and wrapped with a paper belly band in packs of 4; perfect for any elephant-lovers this Christmas.
