Eden has brought together a pair of artists from opposite sides of the globe to help encourage a new generation of artists to create works inspired by the rainforest.

John Dyer, the Eden Project’s painter in residence, and Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Amazonian Indian artist, are working together in the Rainforest Biome to create a series of new paintings, collectively called Spirit of the Rainforest.

The artists are inviting children from around the world to submit their own works inspired by the rainforest, with the best being chosen to be displayed among the plants in the Biome.

John and Nixiwaka will be painting in the biome until Friday, although young artists are able to submit their work online from June 1, 2015. The best of these will be displayed in the Rainforest Biome alongside John and Nixiwaka’s work from October 17 and on a special part of the Eden website.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá is a Yawanawá Indian from the Brazilian Amazon. He is working with the charity Survival International to raise awareness of the Amazon and to speak out for tribal peoples’ rights.

Nixiwaka said: "When we see harm come to the rainforest, it is as if a part of our own body has been hurt. It feels like an illness that rises up in us and needs to be cured."

John Dyer is one of the UK's best known postmodern painters, he said: "The rainforest is a vital part of our lives and our future. We don't all realise this yet but the tribal people of the Amazon know it. By engaging children with the rainforest through art I hope it will build a lifelong concern and connection to the environment.

“When I travelled to the Amazon in 1989 as a photographer with Thames TV I was inspired. Inspired by the beauty and inspired to paint. I have painted ever since.”

Spirit of the Rainforest is being produced in partnership with Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights. Survival helps them defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures. www.survivalinternational.org.