The amazon river is lined with white sandy beaches, small villages along and the occasional big city like Manaus. When the ferries go by the locals watch with interest, and some intrepid entrepreneurs paddle their dugout canoes to intercept the ferry and climb on board to sell goods. It seemed dangerous indeed. In the last Brazil post I mentioned a video where we saw this whole documentary on the people who live near the river and their culture.
The foliage was created with benzi orange (PO36) and phthalo green (PG36) which give some intense olive greens, and perylene green was used for the shadows (PBk31). With my new earth palette, I was able to easily include goethite (PY43) for the amazon river water with streaks of cobalt blue (PB28). French yellow ochre (also PY43) with some Italian deep ochre (also PY43) was perfect for the sandy beach. Burnt umber (PBR7) provided the tree trunks and stilts upon which the colourful houses are built to protect them from frequent floods.
I was committed to getting the Brazil chapter just right, and I hope this one fits the concept. Most of the world inspired landscapes have avoided traces of humanity, but in this case I felt the people who live and travel along the amazon tell an important story. The scene is also striking, we get to appreciate how vast this river is and the wonderful earthy colours of its abundant water and beaches.
One last comment on the design, which I worked out in my sketch book, the composition uses one of the old tricks the Japanese print makers such as Hiroshige and Hokusai developed in the 19th century. They added strong elements like trees and roofs in order to provide a sense of depth, along with triangular shapes at the foreground to liven up the composition.
World Inspired Landscapes: Brazil Amazon with Ferry, 9.5 x 11" cold press, watercolour, May 2021 (No. 2663)
This watercolor captured well the atmosphere in the North of Brazil. Bravo!
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