The making of ‘A Troubled World’ – Signification of the Poppy series

The Signification of the Poppy’ series began with a painting created for a web based competition – ‘Seeking Picasso’ in which I was a finalist.In week 3 the theme was ‘A Troubled World’ and the painting I produced was inspired by the situation in Afghanistan at the time and the metaphor of the poppy in relation to previous wars.

Here are some images of the preliminary work behind the piece.I was then commissioned by one of the judges to produce a series of paintings on the same subject for The McNeill Gallery, Radlett, Hertfordshire. This series is exhibited and some pieces still for sale at.

The works finely depict the poppy as a metaphor. Some represent the emblem of poppy worn for Remembrance Day: another life, another loss. Others depict farmed opium poppies; their beauty offset by the reason for their existence, representing current causes of conflict. In ‘A Troubled World’ and ‘Carpet of Red’ the suggestion of war is confirmed in the distance, where the rolling green hills when viewed more closely have a river of blood running between them, flowing down from the bloodshed in the barren, sandy, habituated hills. Just proves that beauty can be deceiving. A field of flowers can be more than a pretty picture.