London based artist JOHN GLEDHILL who has created a series of extinction based paintings is pleased to announce a partner-ship with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT).
 
THE LAST ELEPHANT is one of a series of images on the subject of the extinction of animals, that Gledhill began working on in the early 1990s. This series also includes the large scale painting THE LAST TIGER 1993 and the forthcoming LAST RHI-NO to complete the triptych. These are the largest land animals on earth and are in the greatest danger of extinction due to poaching and loss of habitat.
 
The series will be exhibited at the Clink Street Art Space with 50% of the sale of the artworks being donated to DSWT.
 
A lino print of The Last Elephant is also currently being exhibited at the Zillah Bell Gallery in Yorkshire where John spent his childhood, with 50% of sales also donated to the Trust.

DSWT is today the most successful orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world and one of the pioneering conservation organisations for wildlife and habitat protection in East Africa.
 
The Last Elephant print recently featured in The Independent and Independent on Sunday, when it was donated as part of their Elephant Appeal campaign.
 
John explains that the scene for these images is an imagined one, set in the near future when the last surviving example of the animal is being paraded from town to town, to give people one last chance to see it. Originally the animal was in a cage but the bars obscured the view of the creature so John removed them. Most of the people in the image are on the whole indifferent to the fact that the elephant portrayed is the last of its kind and there is a kind of carnival atmosphere, where only one or two people try to draw the crowd’s attention to the headline in the paper the man is holding.
 
Although the paintings carry a hard message they are intended to be primarily hopeful and optimistic. For me these animals are themselves magnificent works of art, and by including them in my own art works I wanted to help create a desire in people to hold on to them. By celebrating their beauty in paint I wanted to add my voice to the call to halt their decline before it is too late and help motivate and incentivize people to action no matter how small to save these wonderful creatures. JOHN GLEDHILL
 
www.johngledhill.co.uk