a decade (1972-1979) cultivating and building the local art community by offering workshops of woodworking and painting to the local campesino. Llort founded his first cooperative workshop in La Palma where he taught the local townspeople artisanal craftsmanship, like painting and woodworking. Llort named the workshop (The Seed of God) in relation to where it all started. Near the end of the 1970s, La Palma was known as the center of folk art in El Salvador. In 1981, Llort travelled back to San Salvador, El Salvador to open the Fernando Llort Gallery of Art and Handicrafts named El Arbol De Dios. In contemporary terms, most would categorize Estilo Palmeño, the term coined by Fernando Llort for his art, as Naif/Naive art as it did not take much technical skill to execute, but was focused more on the content and narrative of the image produced. Fernando Llort's reason for art making was not a critique on the political climate or the social oppression of the war El Salvador was facing, but to strengthen the Salvadorean identity using landscapes, indigenous symbols and capturing the daily life of the people. Fernando Llort's use of identity was a homage to the natural landscapes of El Salvador. He would use groupings of houses or hills as symbolism for community. Working with simple shapes, fully saturated colours, and dark outlines, Estilo Palmeño is a mix of abstract, geometric and linear shapes. The reoccurring religious symbols of doves, suns, and a mosaic like structure to each craft was intentional to contrast the difficult times the civil war caused. Llort's goal was "to reconnect my roots as a Latin American, and help define our people in their human and spiritual dimensions" Today, La Palma is renowned for its native artists and handicraft artisans. Fernando Llort and the other artists from San Salvador are recognized as founders of the town's artisanal movement, which provides an opportunity for campesinos to learn about art, and helps them find sources of income other than field work. Llort himself launched the project to establish the Center for Comprehensive Development () and taught art classes. Once the civil war began, however, he left La Palma in 1980 and moved back to San Salvador, but still maintained his connections with the mountain people. His work could also formerly be seen in the tiled ceramic mural he created for the facade of San Salvador's Metropolitan Cathedral