Surrounded by Palms

Sometimes something happens when painting that amazes me. In this Acrylic painting of downtown Palm Springs, California, majestic palms line Palm Canyon Drive and you feel “Surrounded by Palms”. To create this feeling, the palm trees were extended past the edge of the canvas, but at the beginning the palms felt inconsequential. That bothered me, so I attacked the sky with rectangular shapes of turquoise and green around the palms. Palm fronds were painted into and over the background shapes and some were actually decreased in size. Within a few strokes, they suddenly gave the impression I wanted. How could that be?

Perhaps the palms took over because the connections were  extended through the colored squares. Casting palm shadows onto the buildings also increased their presence. It was interesting to see the changes  magnify their strength.