"Amazon Indian rainforest art, is a new genre of art that has been discovered and developed with the Yawanawá tribe by British artist John Dyer. John Dyer is the artist in residence for the Eden Project, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London and also an Artist for the Earth with Earth Day."
Above: John Dyer painting in the Amazon Rainforest in 2019. Photograph courtesy of Martha-Lilly Dyer.
Following on from the original 'Spirit of the Rainforest' residency and exhibition with Survival international at the Eden Project in 2015, John Dyer traveled to the Amazon rainforest to live and paint with the Yawanawá tribe in June 2019, accompanied by explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison OBE, Merlin Hanbury-Tenison and musician Martha-Lilly Dyer.
Above: Watch a film of John Dyer's expedition to the Amazon rainforest in 2019 - filmed in a video diary style the footage was originally released in 5 minute edited and compressed daily videos to schools all over the world via satellite connection from the Amazon rainforest to enable them to be 'live' with the team and to ask questions and interact.
This expedition formed: Chapter 1 - 'Spirit of the Rainforest' of Last Chance to Paint, the major art and environmental project founded by John Dyer in 2018 and supported by Earth Day, Eden Project and Born Free.
The project revealed that the way that Nixiwaka saw the world was a shared visual language of the Yawanawá tribe from adults down to their children. Multiple Amazon indian artists took part in the project and their drawings and paintings all featured the spiritual form of the animals they painted.
Above: Painting on paper using annatto seed paint by a child from the Yawanawá tribe in the Amazon rainforest.
The children painted with annatto seed paint and their paintings were full of symbolism, pattern and spirituality with spiritual snakes and butterflies featuring in all their work.
Above: Amazon Indian artist Nixiwaka Yawanawá painting in the Amazon Rainforest in 2019.
This extraordinary project has generated remarkable new paintings and revealed a new genre of art: Amazon Indian Art.
Each painting explores a key tribal and rainforest spiritual subject and most of them are in pairs, one by John Dyer and one by Nixiwaka Yawanawá. Please visit each painting's page for a detailed description.
Some of John Dyer's paintings and drawings from the project are available in art poster form. View the rainforest art poster prints. Limited edition rainforest art prints are also available, signed by John Dyer.
Discover the Amazon Rainforest Teaching Resources
