The second of the African Elephant prints released in 1991 - see also Love and Protection.(Feature 5)

The two orphaned calves in the picture are a male, Ndume, and a female, Malaika (Swahili for "Angel"). They were rescued by and cared for at Daphne Sheldrick's Elephant Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya.

Gary completed the drawing originally for a friend of his, Lissa Ruben. She worked at the Orphanage and was writing a book about the two orphans and the work of the rescue centre. It was called "A Cry From The Wild; A Tale Of Two Orphans" and published in 1991. The underlying story is terribly sad but it is a really lovely book and the image in Gary's print appears twice within it. The pose in the print matches the photograph of the two orphans on the book's sleeve, the detail being reproduced with extraordinary accuracy.

Gary usually uses his own photographs as the main reference material for his drawings (apart from the earlier Greenpeace prints). For "The Orphans" he used Lissa's photos. When he saw and photographed them they were around a year old and he felt that they were at their most vulnerable and appealing in her photos that were taken soon after their arrival at the Orphanage.

The drawing took about 60 hours to complete. Prints, co-signed by Rula Lenska, were sold for £80 each at Gary's 1994 Mall Galleries solo exhibition and a framed print co-signed by Virginia McKenna and Rula Lenska was also auctioned there
(estimate £200-£300).

The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is concerned primarily with elephant and Rhino conservation, particularly the rescue and care of orphans. It now has its own web-site on www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org which is well worth a visit.