Raincoat in the Sun

36″ x 24″
Oil on canvas

In 2007 during a cruise up the Yangtze River in China, we took a small boat excursion. We were taken up a tributary to see the famous Hanging Coffins on the Cliffs in the Three Gorges. Our Guide was colorful in his indigenous attire. To our delight he modeled a traditional peasant raincoat made from palm fronds. We had seen a similar raincoat in the Shanghai Museum of art. Most of our group chose to view the variety of ethnic clothing of earlier time periods. A whole floor of the Shanghai Museum was devoted to displaying the cultural diversity of China.

As a life long naturalist with a degree in Biology,
One of the most noticeable absences on the Yangtze River and in all of China was the lack of any wildlife. We hardly observed any wild birds anywhere. Birds caged at markets for human consumption and household companion animals were in abundance. We saw many cormorants tethered to small bamboo fishing rafts along the Li river. These birds were traditional hand raised from eggs for fishing lively hood. Now Cormorants have become just a tourist attraction. So sad that the Cultural Revolution impacted not just people but the balance of nature. It is truly an extremely bleak world without critters. Please view The Old Blind Cormorant Fisherman painting in People and Animals.