Pigcasso, the painting sow, takes center stage at South African farm with artwork selling for nearly $4,000

A sow rescued from an abattoir as a piglet brandishes a paintbrush in her snout to create strokes in bright, bold colours across a canvas kept in her sty. Brought in 2016 from the slaughterhouse into an animal sanctuary in Franschhoek, the Western Cape region of South Africa, Reuters reports  how her love for paint brushes and colours was soon noticed by her owners.

Joanne Lefson who runs the Farm Sanctuary SA was quoted by Reuters as saying of her talent, “Pigs are very smart animals and so when I brought Pigcasso here, I thought how do I keep her entertained?”

She added that they had thrown in some soccer balls, rugby balls and paint brushes, but Pigcasso ate or destroyed everything except the brushes. The pig took to painting quite quickly after that and now her work sells for as much as $4,000 with the proceeds going to animal welfare.

The news organisation further quoted Lefson: “Pigcasso is definitely an abstract expressionist, you can’t exactly define what she’s painting but I can tell you that her style slightly changes depending on her mood like any great artist.”

The pig uses a tailor-made brush and child-friendly non-toxic paint to create her abstract, expressionist pieces, a CBS report said, and signs the corner of each of her finished works with the tip of her snout, using a mixture of beetroot and acrylic ink.

According to the report, the Swiss watchmaker, Swatch also collaborated with Pigcasso to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Pig. The Reuters report stated that Pigcasso’s artwork has been turned into a watch face for the firm and the limited edition ‘Flying Pig by Ms Pigcasso’ featuring green, blue and pink brushstrokes sells for $120.