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.  

Fields Of Corn

Fields Of Corn

plein air gouache  6" x 8"

please contact me if interested

This gouache was also done from the roof top of our Airbnb apartment in
Cotacachi, Ecuador.  Like many old colonial buildings there was a sink on the roof for hand washing the laundry.  Believe me, we did not had wash our clothes!  There was a modern, technical washer and dryer in the kitchen (which we struggled to figure out how to use!)  But, I did use the sink for the water for my brushes.

Every where you looked (in this part of Ecuador), in every small empty alley, side garden, massive fields, were crops of corn.  These fields are in the valley below Imbabura Volcano in the mountains to the east of the town.  Cotacachi sits in a valley surrounded by 4 nearby volcanos.  The volcanos were often covered in clouds.

Below are 2 views of Imbabura Volcano from different locations and different days.