The Elephant Who Was Fond of Watermelon

In this painting, "Uncle Jack" Dey has created a brightly colored, imaginative scene by taking animals from different parts of the world and placing them in the same setting. Despite the somewhat whimsical title, the unusually large crows circling overhead and the elephant charging at the man give the painting an ominous feeling. Dey traced the crows, rabbits, and deer onto the canvas with a template, which accounts for their precise shape and size. The log cabin in the background and tree stumps in the foreground recall the artist's days as a lumberjack in Maine.