Rich Land

Rich Land

gouache  6" x 8"

please contact me if interested

This is the last corn field that I painted in Ecuador, although I could have painted
 dozens more!  

The produce and agriculture in Ecuador is pretty amazing!  I read that Ecuador is one of the cradles of world agriculture in that it has rich soil, wonderful weather (it's right on the Equator) and plenty of sunshine. (Although while we were there they had more rain than in the past 5 years combined!).  We saw and ate so many fruits that were new to us.  We had so many delicious glasses of juice every day!  We always felt healthy.  I also read that there are 100s of varieties of corn in the Andes.  In fact, in Quito there is a corn market!

Country Side Walk

Country Side Walk

gouache  6" x 8"

please contact me if interested

I'm continuing to post the small studies from our winter in Ecuador.  I'll also start posting my plein air and studio work that I've been working on back home in Colorado.

One of our day trips while in Cotacachi, Ecuador was to the Condor Park, or Parque Condor, outside of Otavalo.  This park is an endangered bird rehabilitation & rescue center for the endangered Andean condor as well as raptors & owls;  there's even a golden eagle that was donated by a European zoo.  The park hopes to release the birds back into the wild, when possible.  The birds that cannot be released are kept at the park and are part of the daily educational bird show.  Many of the birds are released to fly during the show.  They are lured back with food, although one of the birds was gone a very long time!  The Park is situated with great views of Cotacachi & Imbabura volcanoes.

We took a cab up to the Park, but there were no cabs when we were ready to leave.  So, we started walking the 4 miles back to Otavalo.  It was a beautiful walk through the country side with crops of corn or furrowed fields on both sides of the dirt road.