M’Pofo learns to paint

M’Pofo was enjoying his weekend with his cousin Dassie. They had visited the giraffes, where Dassie helped find the missing mirror. This morning they were going on a walk with their friend Lou-Anne.

“Today, I want to show you some paintings at my new house,” said Lou-Anne to her companions. “It is near here. Normally we paint the walls of our home for decoration and to tell stories,” explained the young girl.

After just a few minutes, the friends arrived at Lou-Anne’s new home. “Wow,” exclaimed M’Pofo, “what interesting pictures you have drawn. So many animals have posed to be painted. I can see Vakawu the vervet monkey, with Bandula the striped Mongoose chasing him around Ubejane the rhino.”

“Oh yes, I often try to paint scenes that have happened when I am around. That one is from the day that Ubejane had the thorn in his foot. Here is another one that I painted where you are swimming with Havubu, the hippopotamus,” said Lou-Anne.

Soon, the three friends discussed the different paintings and pointed out cool things to each other. “Do you two want to learn how to paint too?” asked Lou-Anne.

The cousins answered with a chorus of “Yes,” though Dassie was unsure. “Just how do you think we’ll be able to hold the paintbrushes, Lou-Anne? We don’t have hands like you do.”

“Well, I am sure that M’Pofo can hold a brush in his trunk, and you might be able to hold it between your front paws. Let’s give it a try. There is a corner of the cave where no one has painted yet,” answered Lou-Anne.

The three of them chose different sized brushes, and Lou-Anne brought out an array of colours and explained, “with these colours, you can mix them to get other colours that we don’t have here. So, if you want nice light green, you can mix some red with a lot of yellow. Red and green make brown, but so do blue and orange. So, use your imaginations and come up with whatever you want.”

In no time, the friends mixed all kinds of creative colours, blue with yellow spots, red with white stripes and bright yellows for the sun. Then, the three friends set about painting themselves, but each had to paint a different friend as they didn’t have a mirror with them. So Lou-Anne painted M’Pofo, M’Pofo painted Dassie, and Dassie painted Lou-Anne.

Soon all three were giggling away as the paintings were somewhat accurate, but the colours were very wild. Striped elephants, polka dot bushmen and multi-coloured rock hyraxes adorned the cave wall.

“I like this painting,” said M’Pofo, “we should decorate the rocks around my Mopani tree too.”

The others agreed this was a splendid idea and gathered up all the painting tools and colours they had created and wandered back to M’Pofo’s Mopani tree. On the way, they met several friends and invited them to come along and help with the rock painting.

There were more animals than brushes, so M’Pofo asked Vakawu, the very clever vervet monkey, “Can you make us some new brushes?”

“My dear colourful elephant, of course, I can,” answered Vakawu confidently as he seized leafy branches from different bushes. Then, he broke the stems and tied several with some thin jungle vines to form brushes. In no time at all, he was finished, “Everyone who doesn’t have a brush, come and get it from me,” yelled Vakawu above the noise of the excited artists.

The friends handed out all the brushes and colours. First, Lou-Anne, M’Pofo and Dassie, now experienced painters, shared tips on painting. Then, armed with brushes and paint, all the friends set to work and created the most delightful scenery in vibrant and vivid colours.

“One can easily see what colours and patterns the different animals like,” said M’Pofo to Dassie as he was eagerly watching the rocks coming to life with pictures.

“Oh yes,” replied Dassie, “I can see Zabara the zebra likes black and white zigzag stripes. Gabala, the giraffe, likes painting brown shapes surrounded by yellow.”

Soon the animals had painted all the rocks. Everyone stood back to admire their handy work. M’Pofo addressed the crowd, “Friends, every centimetre of the rocks is painted, the designs are creative, and the colouring exotic. I think we should paint all the rocks once a month and display our artwork to all our friends and family.”

The animals cheered. They had excitedly participated in such a delightfully artistic project. They all had stories to tell and could hardly wait for the next “Great painting event”, as M’Pofo named it. The jungle and the savannah animals came from far and wide to admire the beautiful works of art. Soon, everyone had the odd painted rock or two at their homes.

So, you see, little one, learning new skills can be a lot of fun, especially if you do it with friends.