Read this Wildlife Art Journal article

I was at one time a Wyomingan. But as an artist, I have tried to absord as many experiences as possible to inform my painting. After exploring most of North America from Alaska to Quebec and California to Florida, my travels took me to places as varied as Malaysia’s Endau-Rompin, the Serengeti and Masai Mara in Tanzania and Kenya, then on to the mountains and rainforests stretching from Panama to Bolivia.

One of the most wonderful places of all, however, was Peru and since 2005  I’ve called it home.



Of the countries I have visited, the thing that is most amazing about Peru is the combination of ancient cultures and the natural world. In this single country you have 21,000-foot mountains, coastal deserts next to the Pacific Ocean and various cloud and rainforests. While I have lived in Lima, I have visited most of the country.

Most people when they think of Peru, think first of Machu Pichu, though there are many amazing places. For me, one of them is the Chachapoyan fortress called Kuelap. It is larger and older than Machu Pichu and the first time I visited it in 2003 after doing an 80-kilometer trek in six days, my guide and I ended our trek at Kuelap. That day in Kuelap we were the only people there compared to the hundreds—and thousands—that may visit Machu Pichu daily.

Unlike Machu Pichu, the vegetation inside Kuelap, hasn’t all been removed so there...