Poppies have been one of my favorite flowers to paint. This is another of the paintings I finished in time for my Autumn Art & Jewelry Show.

The flower symbolism associated with poppies is beauty, magic, consolation, fertility and eternal life. Poppies in Chinese art represent the loyalty and faith between lovers.

I find poppies to be beautiful, glorious in color and oh so graceful. My husband on the other hand did not. He considered them a pest. He didn’t like digging them up  to thin them. Oooooo, the dreaded poppy.

When looking through my pics if I can’t find what I am looking for I go online for photos of poppies and if what I find isn’t appropriate or detailed enough I search stock photos and download something that will work. This isn’t something I do often but it is a wonderful resource.

While painting these poppies I decided to paint all those tiny hairs on the stems. One of my house guests was watching and asked if the tiny hairs had a name. Well, I was sure they had a botanical name but I didn’t know it. After searching the internet it seems they may be called sericeous which are “silky” little hairs. This may be more information than you ever wanted. If so, sorry about that, I just get a little curious at times. Do you know if this is correct?

Tiny hairs on poppy stems, "sericeous"

My initial sketch for this painting had more leaves at the bottom but as I was finishing the painting I liked the simplicity of the painting without all the detail of leaves. It felt as though without the leaves more attention would on the blossoms.  Do you agree?

"Crimson Grace", Poppies in acrylic, 24" x 48"