Olivia Peguero’s “Costa Esmeralda Collection,” a series of oil paintings showcasing the landscapes surrounding the town of Miches and the surrounding rainforest, will go on a world tour to benefit the Peguero Arte Libros Foundation. The paintings will be displayed in Florida, London, Dubai, and Bangalore, India. The display will kick-off in Boca Raton, Florida, in December and will continue to London in early spring.

Olivia Peguero was born in Las Salinas and grew up in Miches, Dominican Republic. Renowned as a “plein air” landscape and botanical artist, she created this series to highlight the beauty of Miches and the Costa Esmeralda seashore that is rarely seen by tourists. Through this traveling exhibition, she hopes to bring attention to the Arte Libros Foundation and the “Art Books for Education” program, which helps promote the arts through reading and creative writing for young girls in rural Dominican schools.

The artist holds a BA in fine art studio painting from Florida Atlantic University, a BS in management information systems from Mercy College, and an MBA from Nova University, Florida. Common themes present in Peguero’s art are Dominican landscapes and her island heritage. She came into national prominence during the last decade when she was commissioned to paint a visualization of the poem “The Emerald Hills of Quisqueya.” In 2005, she made news when a private collector requested a commission asking her to paint a beach in the Dominican Republic but to label the art as if it were from another Caribbean country; the collector was turned down.

Regarding the foundation, Peguero was concerned many Dominican children in rural areas are not exposed to and do not have the opportunity to learn fine arts such as painting, sculpture, poetry and story writing. She felt that for a country so rich in the music and dance arts to not have an emphasis in these areas was a loss for every child. One of the programs currently under implementation by the foundation is to supply rural schools with a set of Spanish language art books that cover painting, sculpture, poetry and story writing. These would then be given to the school for their library and as some schools don’t have a library, it would be the start of a long term collection to benefit all students.

For original article on the exhibit, see http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/people/2011/11/15/41646/Dominican-art-of-Miches-and-surrounding-rainforest-to-go-on-world-tour

For more n the artist, see http://dominicanartwork.com/  and http://www.thatsdominican.com/dr/our-people/olivia-peguero

Shown here: Peguero’s “The Emerald Fields of Quisqueya”