Next stop Belize! Why not, with all the snowy blizzards here in Montreal, Belize would be the perfect tropical paradise to visit, it is half jungle, half Caribbean beach. The people's history is a long and traumatic one, thousand of years ago the indigenous people had a thriving collection of societies called Mayan. They developed sophisticated writing, math, and economic growth, not to mention brutal warfare and ritual sacrifice. Mayan civilization was on the decline when Spanish colonialists showed up with more hardships such as slavery, disease and more war. As the Spanish moved out the British colonialists moved in until Belize finally made a peaceful independence movement and became a sovereign country in the 20th century. The Mayan people, descendants of slaves and colonialists, and other regional indigenous people still live there, although the great Mayan cities are abandoned by all but tourists.
The painting is an in interesting story, I cut an old practice painting in half, it was a scene of a grassy field in London Ontario. With some adjustments and additions I turned the old painting into this tropical Mayan ruins on the coast of Belize. As the viewer, you are standing on top of a Mayan pyramid looking down on a grassy clearing and more ruins in the jungle, all the way to the Caribbean sea. Just imaging dozens of tourists crawling all over the place and you get the point. Or, if you can, imagine a Mayan overlord dressed in Eagle's feathers standing on top, it is night time with a full moon, and thousands of Mayan people are chanting and cheering.
World Inspired Landscapes: Belize, 10 x 11" cold press, watercolour, February 2021 (No. 2530a)
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