World Inspired Landscapes: Suriname

 

Suriname is located on the north coast of South America adjacent to Guyana and Brazil. Despite being part of the continent, its remoteness by land makes it effectively a part of the West Indies and Caribbean. Most of the population lives up near the shore line where there is trade and fishing. The rest of the country has the densest forest of all the countries in the world, with over 95% covered with rain forest. Indigenous peoples had lived there for thousands of years, then the Dutch colonialists established a presence and started sugar case in the the fertile valleys. It wasn't until 1975 they gained independence. When researching the country on the internet, it was clearly a well preserved place filled with interesting animals like the little bush baby creatures and all sorts of primates, reptiles, insects and birds. When I was a kid, my parents put this zoo wallpaper on my bedroom wall and I used to stare at it for hours. In the painting, I included some mysterious animal eyes in the dark jungle, with a starry-night in the background. The source material was likely taken from a night safari, they apply flood lights to the jungle to illuminate things for the tourists. 

Doing this painting was more like an illustration, I established the cool trees, vines and shapes of the background and foreground elements. Then I broke free of the outlines with embellishments and strong contrasts from the two light sources (a glowing night sky, and the suggestion of a flood light in the foreground). When doing night scenes, they will look off until the last blocks of colour are filled in, so as a painter you need to learn to trust the process. I knew that from location painting, there is a point where the magic happens. This painting looked okay when I finished, now that it is scanned on the blog it looks even better. I am enjoying the last leg of this series, and it gives me something to do as we continue to get cold rain wind and even snow late into April. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Suriname,  watercolour 7 x 10" hot press, April 2025 (No. 2044b)