HUMPBACK WHALE & YOUNG

For the 40 years Elliot has been carving, he has continued to strive to improve, This is the first Humpback Whale and Baby Elliot has created for us.  It is a gem of sinuous movement and flow.

On our frequent visits to Zimbabwe, we often fly through London. If the W.H. Smiths bookshop have books ‘on special’, such as “African Animals” or “Mammals of the World”, we pick up a few copies as gifts. I gave one of these references to Elliot in about 2006 or 2007, and forgot about it.

Jumping forward to 2010, I’m at his workshop, and see a whale’s tail sticking out from under a piece of cloth sacking. Elliot said, “That’s a reject. I did it from that book you gave me. It’s a Humpback Whale; but I couldn’t get it smooth because there are little nodules of calcite in the Springstone”. I said, “Well Elliot, perhaps you don’t know, but Humpback Whales migrate past Bermuda from January to June each year. We can see them off of the South Shore. They are covered with barnacles, so, please polish that piece. I’m going to buy it.”

Elliot replied, “Well, there’s something that you don’t know. I’ve never seen a whale. I carved it from that book that you gave to me. In fact, I’ve never seen the sea and what’s a barnacle?!!! The reference he used was a copy of National Geographic to capture the essence of this majestic animal. He once said, "they seem to fly under the water'.