It is a spark of virtuoso to create a lyrical scene out of a scene of coconut trees on a hot sultry day. For watercolourist par excellence Khalil Ibrahim, this was something that came naturally to him rather than as a challenge. So the result is a phalanx of coconut trees on the sun-bleached sands with the play of shadows and debris on the beach. To those unfamiliar to such weather, the shade of the palms, however, many of the trees is no protection from the scorching heat, nay even the sands are hot. It is a complex clump of palms, with some trees reaching up very high, some standing ramrod straight, and some slanting like a tipsy wino. It can be insipid to portray the scene as just an array of sticking poles, as it is the palms that are providing the colour and contrasts, the patterns, and the range of density with a lot of attention given to the foreground trees.