Ron Esplin's illustrations for the upcoming book "Wonderlust"
Ron and Julie wondered what were the Seven Wonders of the World?
In 2009 Ron Esplin and his blind wife Julie Woods attended the World Conference celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Louis Braille. They returned to New Zealand through Egypt and Jordan, and after they visited Petra, the "Rose Red City" and one of the Seven Wonders of the World, they wondered what were the other six Wonders?Let's go there!
Since then, over the following six years, Ron and Julie visited.the Great Wall of China, the Colosseum in Rome, the Taj Mahal in India, the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, and Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. People often ask Julie, "How can you sightsee when you have no sight?" Julie's reply is "I can still smell, hear, taste, and touch".Julie may be blind, but can still smell, hear, taste, and touch!
Every day that they were travelling Julie would write a sensory diary recording one thing that she was grateful for smelling, hearing, tasting and touching! This is the way Julie interprets the World. And for Ron, what better inspiration for paintings than to be inspired by the awesome sights that they saw as they visited the Seven Wonders of the World!Now they are writing the book, "Wonderlust", that describes their amazing journeys.
Here are some of the paintings that were described by Ron and Julie in Ron's radio show, "The Arty Farty Show" which was broadcast on 25.4.2020 at 11AM on Otago Access Radio, 105.4FM and now available for you to listen through their website https//oar.org.nz.Link:
https://www.ronesplin.co.nz/news/Ron-Esplin-s-illustrations-for-the-upcoming-book-Wonderlust-24-Apr-2020