La Palma

On Friday I took a day trip to La Palma, another artist community up north near the Honduran border. This town survives on the art in the style of Fernando Llort. In the early 1970’s, Fernando Llort returned from a trip to Europe where he mastered his unique style of art and settled in La Palma. Since then he set up a co-operative to teach others in the community how to replicate his style and now 75% of the town survives on reproducing this art in various forms – from crucifixes, wallets, key chains, plates, wooden boxes and almost anything else you can imagine.

They say his style is now recognised around the world as the typical El Salvadorean art style and his works are held in the Vatican, the White House and many major museums and galleries. Not to mention the murals and telegraph poles with this art plastered all over La Palma.

The town itself is located high up in the mountains and the drive up there was just gorgeous. There was a museum that had only a small display but some of the Llort originals were really beautiful. A lot of the replicas sold now are quite tacky but I figured it was good to purchase a few things to keep the community going.