Hope - Yes we can

Here I am, in Auckland, New Zealand, being completely caught up in the American Elections. I felt so emotionally invested in Barack Obama and I truly believe that he is one of those special people who will go down in history for making a difference. He has a gift - people believe in him and seeing the spirit of hope and joy in America yesterday (well from the Obama supporters anyway) and the landslide victory, was just very very special.

I had the TV on mute during the day to see the results coming through (was working on some HR stuff so couldn't take the time to listen but I could look up at the screen and see results every so often) and when I had to go out driving, I listened to it in my car. When I heard him speak his victory speech, I cried. It really bought home to me just how important this election is, both for the past and for the future.

I have a degree in History and have studied American History and for an African American person to win this election is incredible and I hope it brings hope and belief to the many many children who have thought that they can't achieve certain things due to the colour of their skin. And I think it says something great about the amount of American people who voted for him because he was the best person and that it wasn't about the colour of his skin.

Here in New Zealand (and probably the rest of the western world), we have been so put off by the Bush administration and couldn't believe how such an imbecile could be in charge and make such damaging decisions that were affecting the rest of the world. The leader of this country has such an impact on how the rest of the world views America and I see how interested and invested people here in NZ have been about this election and how excited and hopeful we are about Obama being President. Even though McCain probably would have been better for NZ in terms of the Fair Trade Agreement, I think we all thought that Obama was better for the world.

So I feel hope, hope that this person is one that will continue to change history and make a positive impact on the world. Just seeing the synergy of the people who believe in him and are wanting change is incredible in itself and I believe there will be change and hope.

Charcoal Pencil Portrait no.2

I thought that I would try another portrait using charcoal pencils so this time I drew my lovely husband. My husband doesn't like having a presence on the internet and I respect that which is why I never post photos of him or refer to him via his name on here or on facebook and as I paint and work under my maiden name of Muirhead and have a different married name, he manages to keep his privacy. He was however fine with me posting this drawing of him so here it is and here he is - the love of my life, my biggest supporter and my inspiration.

I am happier with this attempt than Tayla's portrait but it is still not quite where I want it to be. I did struggle a bit with the photo I based this one off, as the back of our son's head was actually cutting off one side of his ear, cheek and neck so I left that to last and last night when he got home from work I had to get him to pose for me with his head on that angle so I could try and get where his neck should be.

This is on A4 Arches smooth paper again. I am almost out of that pad so I might try another brand next time to see the difference.

I also have two paintings on the go that I plan on working on more today - the dragonfly one is slowly coming along and I also am inspired to start another large seascape today too. I find I get into the flow more when I paint landscapes and seascapes versus more detailed subjects. I enjoy the zone when you are just blending colours and are able to get large areas of colour done in one hit. So I think the dragonfly one will be done in bits and pieces and I will do some landscapes/seascapes in between for refreshments. Also all our walls are quite bare at the moment after taking a few of them down to go to Cafe Apollo so I really need to get some large ones done soon.

Tayla charcoal pencil portrait

Here she is, my lovely Tayla. This is A4 Arches Smooth with charcoal pencil. I found it difficult getting the gradations of smooth tone with the charcoal pencil and found that if I drew a line then it kind of stained the paper and even my trusty battery-operated eraser couldn't get rid of that line. I did try using compressed charcoal which I drew on another piece of paper and then firstly used a paper stump to blend it but that wasn't too smooth so then I used my trusty finger and I think that worked best.

So this isn't the best outcome that I wanted and I left the clothes and neck pretty undeveloped as by that stage I figured this was a learning piece and not one that I will give away or hang up myself. I do really love the photo that this is based on though so I would like to attempt this one again, perhaps with a mixture of graphite and charcoal? I do really love the intense black you get with charcoal pencils and I am pretty happy with the eyes and hair, it's really the lack of smoothness with the change in tone on the face and because my baby girl has such beautiful smooth clear skin I really wanted to capture that and I don't think I did.

Photos from Cafe Apollo

On Tuesday we managed to get over to the North Shore and hang my paintings in Cafe Apollo. Here is a photo of them hanging. I think it brightened the cafe up and it would be lovely if I got some sales from it. However the publicity and exposure is all good and I have had sales from people taking my business cards before so I think it is a good thing to do. I am going to rotate work every 3 months so I need to get fairly busy on some large pieces very soon so I have work completed to replace these ones with.

I also thought that I would post of photo of my husband's creative work. He has just finished building this house and I am about to load it up on the internet so we can get some tenants in. It's a really lovely house and I was almost tempted to move into it ourselves as it is bigger than our house and has a separate lounge upstairs. After living with two toddlers who absolutely trash the house every single day, the thought of just closing the door on the mess and going into a toy-free tidy lounge in the evening just seems really appealing sometimes.

I do have great plans for when we build THE house which include a top floor studio with views of Rangitoto, a large library and separate office. That's just what I require for me, let along everything for my husband, our toddlers and my teenage step-son. It might have to be a fairly large house I think so I will wait in our current house until we find the right section for THE house (and have the money to pay for it). It will have to be a large section as I want my kids growing up outside with a large lawn and treehuts to climb to, bushes to play hide and seek in and flowers to pick for their mother. Can't wait...

We Are the World - Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, Jackson

Thought that I would check out You Tube to see if the video was there and of course it is so for those of you that haven't heard this song for a while, here it is!

NZ Art Guild fortnightly challenge

Something completely and utterly different for me I know! This fortnight's theme for the NZ Art Guild is 'Community' and the challenge component of it was that you had to use collage. So I played and it was fun doing something light and different.

It is called "We are the World" as my interpretation of community is that we are a global community right now. Look at how inter-related we all are with our systems such as the finance markets which is top of mind at present. Look at how technology has meant that you can communicate instantly with someone the other side of the world. When I thought about our world as our community, it made me remember that song "We are the world, we are the children..." I remember singing that at primary school and I loved it so for this challenge I thought that I would do three girls singing this from different cultures/ethnicities but together in our global community.

I have no idea what I will do with this piece, but it was fun to play and do and gave me a break from this self-portrait which I am still battling with and the dragonfly that I have decided to give up the acrylics with and break out the oils.

This particular piece is 300 x 200 x 35mm and is acrylic, collage and mixed media on canvas.

Virtual Sketch Date - October

I really didn't think I would get anything done in time for the Virtual Sketch Date this month but this afternoon after putting the kiddies down for their nap, I decided to sit down and do a charcoal pencil sketch. I only spent about 45 minutes on this one (just a tad quicker than the 5-6 hours I spent on the coloured pencil peonies last month). I decided to crop the image for two reasons, firstly so I could actually get something finished in time and secondly because in the previous months I have really enjoyed seeing the interesting crops that other artists have done so I wanted to extend myself and try cropping rather than drawing the entire thing and I quite like the effect actually.

I also played around with the reference image on photoshop elements and put a film effect on it (makes it grainy) and then removed the colour so I would do something a bit looser for me.

Here is the original photo that this was based on. This was kindly provided by the very talented Belinda Lindhardt. I would recommend you check out her work as she does some amazing stuff with coloured pencils that I am in awe of.

I am looking forward to seeing all the other versions again this month. Basically check out the Virtual Sketch Date blog by tomorrow and you should see all the links for those that participated. It seems to be growing month on month and there is something really special about seeing just how creative and unique everyone's interpretations of the same image can be.