"The Big One"

There is, in an artist's life, one work that occupies a place apart — just one, that carries all the rest. The Big One is mine. I had been thinking about this challenge for a long time. When I finally decided to take it on, I had not yet fully measured what it would represent.

One year of work. Moments of deep doubt, moments of pure joy. Dozens of tubes emptied, brushes worn to nothing — and for the upper sections, scaffolding, because the canvas is two and a half metres tall. And then that day, the final touch, which will remain etched in me as one of the most intense moments of my life as an artist. The painting now hangs in the home of a dear friend. From time to time I go to visit it. And strangely, I never tire of it.

The composition is frontal, almost symmetrical — the elephant comes straight at you, head high, ears spread, trunk low. It occupies the entire canvas, from the left edge to the right. The palette is that of the savanna in the dry season: golden ochres, warm and amber browns, a background of dry grasses that envelops the silhouette. Warm, almost luminous — and yet overwhelming.

At this scale, the painting ceases to be an object one looks at and becomes something one feels. I wanted the viewer to experience physically the presence of the animal — not to observe it from a distance, but to find oneself face to face with it, as in the bush.