Art is a universal language that can be understood, appreciated and used to bridge and communicate across peoples, cultures, countries and languages. As an artist, I am fascinated by the visual language we all learn and what commonalities and differences exist across peoples. I am also very aware of how music transcends language barriers and talks directly to one’s emotions, soul and being. The combination of the two is very powerful and the Yawanawá people’s tribal music an

We have just returned from our amazing ‘Spirit of the Rainforest 2’ chapter of ‘Last Chance to Paint’ where we painted and played music with the Yawanawá tribe in the Amazon rainforest. We have had so many experiences and have lots to share with you all. One of the highlights of our time in the rainforest was being able to connect with the Yawanawá people using music. Composer Jake Thorpe wrote a new piece of flute music inspired by my painting ‘Yuxi Yuve’ which is a depictio

Today has been our last day in Mutum village and we’ve had such an amazing time. Due to the humid climate, John’s paintings have been taking a couple of days to dry, and as we are planning to leave first thing tomorrow morning, we decided that the sensible thing would be for him not to paint on our last day. Instead we organised to spend the morning with Mutum school. As previously planned, we had brought paper for the children to work on and some brushes for them to use. Ins

It’s our penultimate day in Mutum with the Yawanawá and it’s boiling! As our week draws to a close we are really starting to feel the tiredness settle in, especially in these boiling temperatures, and we are looking forward to travelling home to recount all of our amazing stories. The hot sunny weather has been an issue for the first time today! The iphone, which we video, photograph, write and upload blogs from overheated, meaning we weren’t able to use it so much. It was al

Wow! We can’t believe that we’ve been in Brazil for a week now! Just another quick reminder that our videos to Facebook and YouTube won’t be running until we return to WiFi and 4G towards the end of the week when we begin our travel home. This is due to a issue we have with the satellite we use. Don’t worry as we are still filming, so all our footage will be posted soon! Last night was truly magical. The young Shaman Razu, who I mentioned in a previous blog arrived, and we we

Hi everyone, Despite our best efforts technology has failed us and we will be unable to release any more videos whilst we are here. Blogs will continue to be posted so you can follow us this way in the mean time. We are still filming the videos for you all, and as soon as we hit WiFi or 4G when we leave Mutum we will release all of the videos yet to be seen for everyone to enjoy and learn from. We can’t wait for you to see what we’ve been up to! Apologies for this hiccup, it’

Challenge for everyone: Can you find out the name of the bird in the blog photo? Sadly we are not sure, so it’s up to you to find out for us! Last night was very exciting for us as our travelling companions and friends Robin Hanbury-Tenison (20c worlds greatest explorer) and his son Merlin arrived by boat to Mutum! They are not staying in the same place as us but in a massive 3 storey tree house right on the edge of the rainforest. It’s a real dream for them! When they woke

We have arrived at painting location number 2! It took far less time to get here today than it did yesterday as the organising was previously completed. By 9am painting was underway. Today our painting location is very special and is a very sacred place to the tribe. It is here that the Yawanawá people are able to begin their shamanic path and this area is very much used as a meditation spot. As we set us to paint, the leaves were swept away to present clear ground for us to

Before we arrived with the Yawanawá, we had to pay them a sum of money. This was to cover the cost of our transport to/from the tribe, living with them, and food costs. Last night we were told that supper would be at the chiefs house where all the food our money had paid for was to be feasted on. We were then advised not to come to the feast as the food bought was mostly fish and meat based, which as vegetarians would have been awkward for us and we would have seemed rude. To

Here are some answers to some of the questions we have been emailed: Why did you decide to go to Brazil and paint? Because The Amazon Rainforest is very important to all our futures and I wanted to make all the children aware of the Amazon. I have a friend, Nixiwaka Yawanawá who is an artist, and by painting together in the Amazon, we hope to spread the message that it’s very special and needs to be protected. – John Do you think you will fit in? We will always be polite and

Hi everyone! We survived our first night in the Rainforest and have now been properly introduced to the Yawanawá people and the village. As we arrived at night time we weren’t able to film our arrival as we were mainly concentrating on getting our luggage up a sandy bank and finding the way to our accommodation, keeping an eye out for any snakes or spiders in our path. Our accommodation is fairly basic and consists of a round wooden yurt – slightly raised from the ground – wi

Day 2 Our blog today is about the final leg of our journey until our arrival at Mutum village, home of the Yawanawá people. Today we were met at our hotel by a police man called Alvino – our driver for the morning – and Nixiwaka Yawanawá – our contact and friend from Mutum. Then after a brief café pit stop, which was an adventure in itself, we set off on a 2hr car journey to Sao Vicente Bridge where we were to meet our boat. On the journey we learnt lots of things about triba

We have officially touched down and started our Amazon adventure! Having spent nearly 48hrs in and out of airports and on planes we are pretty exhausted and we were very relieved to arrive at The Swamy Hotel in Cruzeiro Do Sul, courtesy of our taxi driver who avoided most of the pot holes! To be shown to a room with a working bathroom and a comfortable bed was all we could ask for after little sleep and no showers for so long. After freshening up slightly we hit the town to ‘