World Inspired Landscapes: Cambodia

 

Cambodia is located in the Indochinese peninsula, neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. After the Vietnam war, Cambodia was plunged into chaos and bloodshed as their ruling regime caused the deaths of millions of the people. The regime was deposed and the United Nations helped them regain a democracy of sorts which remains to this day under a one party rule. The landscape of Cambodia was altered by these political events, over 90% of the forests have been cut down for timber and to support sustenance farming for the people. Mostly flatland with one big lake, Cambodia specializes in rice farming and sugar palms. They also experience extreme monsoon rainy seasons and are very vulnerable to climate change. 

The painting shows a sudden rainstorm over a rice field. The idea was inspired by Hiroshige's prints that sometimes showed rainy scenes with the local people running for cover. He also used the diagonal line technique to represent rain drops from the dark sky.

World Inspired Landscapes: Cambodia, watercolour, 9 x 12" watercolour paper, December  2021

 

This was a preliminary painting on a smaller size, it had most of the elements but I wanted the palm trees to be more prominent, and needed some more space for the people and rain effects. The charred black tree remnants are meant to represent the forest that was one there, and they are also meant to be apparition like.

World Inspired Landscapes: Cambodia version 1, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, December 2021 (No. 2937b)