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African girl 非洲女孩

Scotland_edited_edited.jpg

2012

13cms (W) x 18cms (H)

Oil on Panel

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I don't have a high definition photo of this painting yet. It's something I painted after spending a 2 week trip in a research centre in Wamba, Samburu, Kenya. My employer (Jaguar Land Rover) at the time had a partnership with a conservational research organisation called 'Earthwatch' (There's a cool video on Youtube - i'm one of the many British men with no hair in the film)

 

We had gone to support work to help preserve an endangered species of Zebra, the Grevy's Zebra (nope, neither had I). It was an amazing trip and in between the research activities we got to visit local schools, towns and tribes. I was only there 2 weeks but it had such a powerful impact on me, just to bring into such stark contrast how tough life could be for people. I decided to paint this girl who we'd seen wearing the traditional local dress. Most people had to endure significant threats and discomfort (kids at the local girl's school would have to get up at 4am every day to do the 4 hour round trip walk to get water, and most students would never see graduation because they'd be married off between the ages of 12-15 and prevented from attending school) but this girl also had some form of disability. Being a fat pasty foreigner, I probably wouldn't have lasted a month in that environment without being turned into fat pasty Hyena snack under the patty-forming foot of a rampaging elephant, so I was amazed at how she'd survived in such an uncompromising environment. Getting her character across was a little challenging as iId never really painted these skin tones before; hers was very dark, with some touches of blues, pinks and greys; and I also wanted to contrast it with the super-colourful beads that she wore, but without losing her facial expressions.

I was really pleased with this and it's on permanent loan to my dad.

我没有这幅画的高清图。这是我在肯尼亚桑布鲁的万巴研究中心出差两周后画的。当时,我的雇主(捷豹路虎)与一家名为“地球观察”的环保研究机构建立了合作关系(youtube上有一段很酷的视频,我是视频中众多光头英国男人之一)

当时去肯尼亚是参加一项工作支持,保护濒临灭绝的格雷维斑马(一只也没有,我也没听说过)。那次行程很棒,在研究活动之余;我们参观了当地的学校,城镇和部落。虽然我只在那里呆了2周,但对我却产生了巨大的影响,让我意识到,相比之下人们的生活竟可以如此艰难。于是我决定画这个见到的穿着传统服饰的女孩。当地大多数人都要忍受巨大的威胁和窘迫(当地女子学校的孩子每天凌晨4点就得起床,走4个小时往返去取水。大部分孩子永远也不会有毕业的那天,因为他们在12-15岁之间就辍学结婚了),画中的这个女孩还有些身体缺陷。作为一个胖乎乎的外国人,我可能那样的环境中一个月都呆不了,就被土狼吃掉,或被横冲直撞的大象踩在脚下,所以对于她能够在这样的环境中生存下来的,我感到非常不可思议。通过画来展现她的个性有点挑战;因为在此之前我从来没画过这种肤色。她的脸很黑,又有些淡淡的蓝色,略微泛红,又有些灰色。而且我还想让她的肤色和她戴的五彩珠子进行对比,同时又不影响她的面部表情。

这幅画完非常喜欢,把它永久性借给了我父亲。

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