Naturally, after viewing this video we wanted to know if we could believe our eyes.  To find out,
we contacted a friend from Australia, Christine Townend (Animal Souls), who spends a good part of each year working with animals in India through the organization, Help in Suffering.  Within three days, Chris had managed to find out the identity of the elephant, its location, and the truth behind this incredible elephant story.

                                   Elephants, Jaipur by Christine Townend

"The elephant, called Hong, is an 8-year old female.  She is currently in an elephant camp in Lampang, Thailand.  The charity selling the paintings is The Asian Art & Conservation Project, funds from which go to the various captive projects where these elephant 'artists' are kept, or to wild conservation projects.

Hong appears to be the only elephant that can produce art of this standard.  She has apparently been taught over two years by her mahout, Noi Rakchang, and after learning how to paint flowers she moved on to elephants holding flowers and the Thai flag.
 
They do specify: 'Just for clarification, with these realistic figural works, the elephant is still the only one making the marks on the paper but the paintings are a learned series of brushstrokes, not Hong painting a still life on her own.'"

 “It certainly is wondrous how much the elephants know.  I came to understand this through association with them over the years when we worked closely with them in Jaipur [India].

A few years back some new research was published which showed that elephants can recognize and groom themselves by use of a mirror.  A friend who keeps an elephant in a sanctuary in India said that he had known this for years.  He said that she [the elephant] regularly examines herself in the mirror, looking at her teeth, removing specks of dirt from her body, etc.

Also a few years back, the managing trustee of Help in Suffering held an art exhibition in Jaipur and decided to invite several elephants to participate among the artists.  Knowing that there were elephants who could paint, but not knowing whether any of the local elephants could, we asked the local elephant owners if we could see whether their elephants were able to paint and whether they would be willing to let their elephants participate in the event. 

It was very interesting to see that two or three elephants quickly understood how to use the paint brush and dipped it into the tins of paint, applying it eagerly to the paper, whereas others had absolutely no interest whatsoever.  They even showed individual styles of painting and different choices of favourite colours.  One felt that the elephants who were interested in art could have developed their skills much more if given the opportunity.

All of this shows us how much humans underestimate the abilities and the souls of animals.”