African Elephants have been a huge part of Steve Winterburn’s life, ever since his first conservation trip to Kenya back in 1993 and his first in the flesh sighting left him in awe. This admiration only grew from there and rocketed when he built a lifelong bond and dear friendship with the legendary Daphne Sheldrick DBE of the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, who passed on her unparalleled wisdom of the species. Spending years with Daphne and elephants both in the wild and at orphanages, bred a deep love for the worlds largest land mammal and this love shines through when it comes to Steve’s expression, in sculpture. His African elephants have always been best sellers leading to many sold out collections and more recently to huge social media interactions.

With “Back Off” Steve wanted to focus on power to convey the imposing presence of the African Bull Elephant. He has achieved this by creating an amazing flow with the composition and textures combining and producing a lovely tactility which encapsulates this. Steve decided to incorporate elevation into this piece up a sculpted rock form, this is to add attitude, portraying the dominance of a stampeding Bull stamping his authority on his territory.

Steve’s depictions of elephants over the years, both African and Indian, have been amongst his most popular. This is due not only to the movement he captures, but the incredible detail he creates with his refined sculpting techniques and knowledge of the species, “Back Off” is no exception and is a real showstopper.