Aqua Palms, 2026 by Ray Patrick — original oil painting — 2026.110.050

Subject

Palms seen against a dark, mottled ground, their crowns picked out in pale yellow-green and their trunks running the full height.

Composition

Twelve or more trunks are spaced across the width at uneven intervals, the crowns at staggered heights so no two line up. The composition is a rhythm rather than a scene; there is no ground plane and no sky.

Palette

An extraordinary reversal — the palms are the LIGHT and the ground is dark. Chartreuse and lime crowns against a ground of rust, copper and deep ultramarine, the two meeting without transition.

Handling

The ground is worked in layers and allowed to pool and mottle, with spatter and dragged passages left in. The palms are laid over it as flat opaque shapes, their fronds struck out with a loaded brush.

Medium and support

Oil. Flexible unstretched support, with creases running through the paint film. Thin and layered rather than impasted.

Signature

No signature visible within the painted area.