David Hewson is an artist who learned the ancient technique of water gilding from studying and working for many years in the restoration of paintings and churches in Italy and Switzerland. In composing his pieces, he uses a combination of gold, platinum and silver mixed with oil paint on wood panels with hand-carved, custom-designed frames. He also has a wide assortment of drawings which he regularly displays alongside his paintings, and which include portraits, still lives, classical religious depictions, and modern symbolic esoterism. (www.davidhewsonart.com)

David is currently living in the Peruvian Amazon. For the past two years, he has been working on a project called The Road and the Wilderness, which pertains to the beauty and the destruction of the Amazon Basin and is part of a traveling exhibit coming to the Collective Works Gallery in Victoria June 6- 18, 2009. (www.collectiveworks.ca/site/e...e.html)

The Road and the Wilderness is a mixed media exposé. Paintings and drawings depict the colourful myths and legends central to local culture and belief, including shamanic healing practices involving medicinal and sacramental plants. Also portrayed are the destructive elements present in the Peruvian Amazon, as conveyed through lectures, films, maps, and photographs. Inherent in this juxtaposition is a critique of the privatization and contamination of the jungle by multinational companies, some Canadian, and the extent of the Peruvian government's concessions of lands to foreign-based timber, petroleum and mining interests.

Over the course of his travels, David has come to know many Canadians and very much admires their openness, progressiveness, and global perspective. He is excited about this opportunity to share information about this region of the world, and to engage in dialogue which may be of benefit to us all, as we contemplate our future and that of our planet.