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Art Card: Family Harvest, Isla Taquile, Peru



View Gallery in USA $ I View Gallery in UK/EURO £ REGISTER your EMAIL to be invited to our exhibitions and for the latest news on our art range. ADD YOUR OWN TEXT AND MESSAGE TO THIS CARD "Family Harvest, Isla Taquile"" was painted on location in Peru by John Dyer. The painting is part of a set of work completed by the artist for the United Nations International Year of the Potato working as resident artist for CIP International Potato Center - Centro Internacional de la Papa. The painting shows the harvest in the high Andes near the sacred valley at Amaru. "In the far south of Peru, near the Bolivian border, you find the genetic home of the potato. Peru is where the humble potato originated from, and this is also the place to find not only the biodiversiy but the culture and ceremonies associated with it. 45km into lake Titicaca is the island of Taquile which has some of the oldest potato terraces in the world. The people (Taquileños) of the island run their community as a collective and adhere to the Inca moral code; do not steal, lie of be lazy. This is a very traditional but rich society. The clothes worn by the men and women are the same throughout the year. The hats of the men being particuarly interesting as they indicate their marital status by the use of colour. After a day and a half of walking to find the harvest I painted this canvas as the family gathered their crop and again it became a wonderful way of communicating with the people. As I was watching them they watched me. Yellow butterflies flitted about and bird song filled the air. To slow the harvest up a little, and as a courtesy to the family, I provided plenty of coca leaves and beer which seemed to work a treat ! The harvest continued at a pace I could keep up with and a crowd of locals gathered to watch the spectacle. The family cooked some of the potatoes in a small earth oven they constructed and the farmer blessed my painting with beer for Pachamama. He was pleased with the length and straightness of the line the beer left on the earth, stating that this would bring great fortune to the painting." ARTIST INFORMATION John Dyer is one of the UK's most exciting and well known artists. His work is collected internationally and his paintings have been the subject of popular television programmes and a wide range of merchandise. John has worked as Artist in residence for many organisations including Eden Project, Bioversity International, Banrock Station and Darwin200. "There is an innocence and freshness to John Dyer's art that follows a tradition in Cornwall. Rather than trying to record what he sees, John sets out to capture the 'essence' of his subject. It is his ability to capture the 'essence' of what is important that seems to appeal to those who have shown great vision and originality in their own careers, such as Tim Smit, Alan Titchmarsh, Toyah Willcox and Kim Wilde who are all collectors of the artists paintings." Brian Stewart . Curator Falmouth Art Gallery Read More I Chronology I Biography I Video I View Original Paintings I View John Dyer Book

Price: $3.35

Art Card: The Potato Harvest, Amaru, Peru



View Gallery in USA $ I View Gallery in UK/EURO £ REGISTER your EMAIL to be invited to our exhibitions and for the latest news on our art range. ADD YOUR OWN TEXT AND MESSAGE TO THIS CARD "The Potato Harvest" was painted on location in Peru by John Dyer. The painting is part of a set of work completed by the artist for the United Nations International Year of the Potato working as resident artist for CIP International Potato Center - Centro Internacional de la Papa. The painting shows the harvest in the high Andes near the sacred valley at Amaru. "My first painting was paintined way up in the Andes, an hours trek up from a tiny village called Amaru at a height of around 4000m. The farmer that I was staying with took me up into the mountains to look for the potato harvest and after 1.5 hrs of walking vertically up we came across this small family group clearing one of the last fields in the area. Mother,Father,Grandmother and a child all worked hard and they were accompanied by their animals - pigs and horses. The amazing space blue of the Andean sky dominates the view with the dry dusty red earth acting as a canvas for the multitude of plants,animals and the biodiverse potato crop of tubers of all colours from blue to red. As I painted, and the family harvested, my host famer continued to crochet a new Peruvian hat of many colours and geometric shapes.." ARTIST INFORMATION John Dyer is one of the UK's most exciting and well known artists. His work is collected internationally and his paintings have been the subject of popular television programmes and a wide range of merchandise. John has worked as Artist in residence for many organisations including Eden Project, Bioversity International, Banrock Station and Darwin200. "There is an innocence and freshness to John Dyer's art that follows a tradition in Cornwall. Rather than trying to record what he sees, John sets out to capture the 'essence' of his subject. It is his ability to capture the 'essence' of what is important that seems to appeal to those who have shown great vision and originality in their own careers, such as Tim Smit, Alan Titchmarsh, Toyah Willcox and Kim Wilde who are all collectors of the artists paintings." Brian Stewart . Curator Falmouth Art Gallery Read More I Chronology I Biography I Video I View Original Paintings I View John Dyer Book

Price: $3.35

Art Card: Freeze Dried Frestival Potatoes, Peru



View Gallery in USA $ I View Gallery in UK/EURO £ REGISTER your EMAIL to be invited to our exhibitions and for the latest news on our art range. ADD YOUR OWN TEXT AND MESSAGE TO THIS CARD "Freeze Dried Festival Potatoes" was painted on location in Peru by John Dyer. The painting is part of a set of work completed by the artist for the United Nations International Year of the Potato working as resident artist for CIP International Potato Center - Centro Internacional de la Papa. The painting shows the festival held on Isla Taquile. "The potato festival, which celebrates the earth and pachamama, is rooted in the need for the harvest to succeed and for the ability of the people to be able to forecast the weather and seasons. The people look at many natural signs to help them judge what and when to plant. The diversity of animals, birds and fish are used as signs for how the coming season will be. The island has two distinct seasons, a wet summer and a dry winter and this painting captures,I hope, the importance of the culture,environment,biodiversity and seasons. Potatoes are spread on the ground to bake in the day and freeze at night; the temperature plunges from 25c to sub zero each evening. Often the people will trample the potatoes underfoot to squeeze the last drops of moisture out. This freeze drying not only allows the crop to be stored for decades as a food source, but it also triples the value of the crop when trading on the mainland. Last year in the dry cold season it suddenly rained unexpectedly causing the loss of much of the harvest as it laid exposed in the fields. This year following the many hours of dancing, music, beer drinking and coca leaf chewing should be a better result !" ARTIST INFORMATION John Dyer is one of the UK's most exciting and well known artists. His work is collected internationally and his paintings have been the subject of popular television programmes and a wide range of merchandise. John has worked as Artist in residence for many organisations including Eden Project, Bioversity International, Banrock Station and Darwin200. "There is an innocence and freshness to John Dyer's art that follows a tradition in Cornwall. Rather than trying to record what he sees, John sets out to capture the 'essence' of his subject. It is his ability to capture the 'essence' of what is important that seems to appeal to those who have shown great vision and originality in their own careers, such as Tim Smit, Alan Titchmarsh, Toyah Willcox and Kim Wilde who are all collectors of the artists paintings." Brian Stewart . Curator Falmouth Art Gallery Read More I Chronology I Biography I Video I View Original Paintings I View John Dyer Book

Price: $3.35

Black-billed Mountain Toucan T-shirt



Black-billed Mountain-toucan (Andigena Nigrirostris) from the humid highland forests of the Andes.

Price: $20.55

Black-billed Mountain Toucan Poster



Black-billed Mountain-toucan (Andigena Nigrirostris) from the humid highland forests of the Andes.

Price: $-0.01