A wonderful painting for any food and travel lover. John Dyer worked in the hot rice paddy fields in the Philippines recording the textures and colours of this important harvest. The painting is filled with bright colour and texture. Palm trees line the background set against a tropical sky. As the rice is winnowed the straw blows away in the breeze. An intriguing painting. Read more below:

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"After the main crop has been collected and threshed by machine, the workers return to the paddy to collect the remaining rice straw by hand. This is then sorted in the breeze to extract as much rice as they can. Water buffalo stand idle in the heat of the day and the light is searingly bright, reflecting on the dry landscape. A tripod is erected to speed up the sifting of the rice grains and individuals winnow small piles by hand using the breeze to separate the rice from the straw. The rice is collected in white sacks and loaded onto an assortment of vehicles – jeepneys, bikes, motorbikes. Later in the day when the farmers have departed, mothers and their children arrive to sift through the rice straw, extracting enough for maybe one meal that evening. Much of the rice is spread in the road to dry and we drive over it as we depart from this amazing location, the rice being raked flat again after our departure." John Dyer

The painting is featured in the book 'Painting the Colours of the World' by Kate Dinn.

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