THE image of an elephant summons an array of meanings for artist Roy McPherson, which is why it was the star piece auctioned at a special exhibition last week with all proceeds going to a mighty cause.
Mr McPherson spent 20 years as a circus artist and has six world records in circus so it’s no surprise he is often described as Australia’s Circus King Roy Maloy.
The celebrated performer “pitched camp” in Newport six months ago and has been working on his third exhibition in 14 months, Circus Form. “It’s an exhibition of pictures that I’ve painted to demonstrate the extreme ways that the human body can be used to perform seemingly unimaginable feats of skill, strength and dexterity,” Mr McPherson said.
Mr McPherson, the inventor of a new art form called non-blended impressionism, held an open studio last week giving guests a chance to view the new collection and to help raise funds for the not-for-profit Paws for Purrfect Patient Therapy.
PFPPT provide pet foster care for people with mental illness and victims of domestic violence.
The picture was painted especially for the auction by Mr McPherson of a performance elephant named Alice who went off-road 50 years ago this year after working as a circus elephant.
After a while she started showing signs of depression, away from the life she had.
“Animals do suffer huge emotional grief when you change their circumstances – Paws caters for that.”
“When someone has a crash and they fall emotionally the pet then suffers. The knock-on is directly to the animal that they have – Paws take them off their hands and they work with them in the best way for the animal.”
Mr McPherson’s next collection will hit Melbourne in April/May and will tour from Melbourne to Sydney and Los Angeles.
