"Udongo"

'Udongo' is my first oil painting. Painting the elephant — that monumental animal, with skin thick as earth itself — imposed itself as an obvious choice to inaugurate this technique. Oil paint offers a material, a depth that acrylic cannot render in the same way. And the elephant, perhaps more than any other animal, deserved that richness.

The elephant of Udongo is not shown in motion, nor in action. It is simply there — present, massive, imperturbable. The tight framing on its skin makes the horizon, the context, the setting disappear. Nothing remains but it: that living architecture, that animated earth. 'Udongo' — earth in Swahili. It was the only possible title.

Two colours only: burnt umber and titanium white. That palette reduced to essentials is not a constraint — it is a choice. It forces you to say everything through light, contrast, and matter. The skin of the elephant, with its cracks and deep furrows, becomes a territory in itself. Through sobriety, the painting tips towards something else: you no longer know if you are looking at an animal or a mineral landscape.

With Udongo, I wanted to explore how far a stripped-down palette could go. Oil paint allowed me to work the texture in successive layers — to accumulate matter as the elephant accumulates years. This painting is a statement of intent for the entire African Sepias collection: wildlife as a pretext to explore painting in its most raw dimension.