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Brian Keith Stephens"Tip Of Your Tongue" - Oil And Wax Elephant Figurative Painting 20252025
2025
About the Item
“Tip of Your Tongue” by Brian Keith Stephens is an original, handmade oil and wax on cotton painting completed in 2025. Measuring 70 inches high by 40 inches wide with a depth of 1.50 inches (177.80 x 101.60 x 3.81 cm), this captivating piece showcases a graceful elephant beneath the sweeping fronds of a palm tree. The serene composition highlights the artist’s careful layering of oil and wax, creating soft, textural passages that enhance the gentle palette of neutral grays, greens, and off-whites.
Stephens’ choice of subject matter invites a reflection on nature’s tranquility and the quiet bond between fauna and flora. The elephant, rendered with subtle brushstrokes and diffused details, seems poised in a calm reverie, juxtaposed against the palm’s gentle sway.
“Tip of Your Tongue” stands as an extraordinary example of a contemporary figurative approach that combines understated abstraction with recognizable forms. The piece is currently unframed, allowing collectors the freedom to select a frame—or display method—that best complements their space. Priced at $19,000, it is a testament to the handmade artistry, thoughtful composition, and refined technique that define Brian Keith Stephens’ creative vision.
Artist Statement
I have always been intrigued how humans used animals as a vessel for their stories throughout literature and art; how simple animal qualities help depict human emotions in a way that is both understandable, mysterious and alluring. In my paintings I often draw on legends, fables and folk tales from around the world to invest my animal subjects with meaning and emotion, revealing a common cultural language that resonates with a vast audience.
Elephants have always held a powerful place in legends and stories, symbolizing wisdom, strength, and mystery across various cultures. They’re revered not only for their immense size and strength but also for their intelligence and social bonds, often carrying deep symbolic meaning in myths and folklore.
One exile of the fable I particularly like is an ancient Indian parable of the blind men and the elephant: There were once six blind men who stood by the road-side every day, and begged from the people who passed. They had often heard of elephants, but they had never seen one; for, being blind, how could they? It so happened one morning that an elephant was driven down the road where they stood. When they were told that the great beast was before them, they asked the driver to let him stop so that they might see him. Of course they could not see him with their eyes; but they thought that by touching him they could learn just what kind of animal he was.
The first one happened to put his hand on the elephant's side. "Well, well!" he said, "now I know all about this beast. He is exactly like a wall." The second felt only of the elephant's tusk. "My brother," he said, "you are mistaken. He is not at all like a wall. He is round and smooth and sharp. He is more like a spear than anything else.”
- Creator:Brian Keith Stephens (1973, American)
- Creation Year:2025
- Dimensions:Height: 70 in (177.8 cm)Width: 40 in (101.6 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Framing:Framing Options Available
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Denver, CO
- Reference Number:Seller: 1stDibs: LU1308215869922
Brian Keith Stephens
“I have always been intrigued by how humans used animals as vessels for their stories throughout literature and art, how simple animal qualities help depict human emotions in ways that are understandable, mysterious, and alluring. At the center of my work and life are these fascinations with myth, the spectrum of human passion, our kinship to the spirit of the wild animal, and the challenges of balancing the real with the fanciful. My art has been and continues to be my outlet for exploring these themes and conjuring new ones.” – Brian Keith Stephens
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