Amapolas Roja (Red Poppies) - finished at last!

The poppies are finally finished! As you can tell from the painting above, I finished this painting. I completed the second poppy using the same techniques as the first one and then added a little greenery. I put only a small amount of greenery in this painting allowing the focus to remain on the colorful poppies. After a final review, I decided against doing any additional painting on the brick/tiles. Again, for the same reason.....I wanted the focus to remain on the poppies, not on the background.

The stems and leaves were painted using several shades of paint. I used green mixed with brown, blue, and yellow to achieve a variety of shades of green to show shadow and light. I used the brown/green for the stems, the deep green/blue for the shaded areas and the yellow/green for the green areas reflecting light.

I found some interesting facts about poppies to share (in case you are a fan of Trivia Pursuit):

-The California poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is the state flower of California.
-In Mexico, Grupo Modelo, the makers of Corona beer, used red poppy flowers in most of its advertising images until the 1960s.
-A poppy flower is depicted on the reverse of the Macedonian 500 denars banknote, issued in 1996 and 2003. The poppy is also part of the coat of arms of the Republic of Macedonia.
-Poppies (Amapolas in Spanish) are commonly featured as the central flower in Puerto Rican weddings.
-Artificial poppies (called "Buddy Poppies") are used in the veterans' aid campaign by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which provides money to the veterans who assemble the poppies and various aid programs to veterans and their families.
-Canada issued special quarters (25-cent coins) with a red poppy on the reverse in 2004, 2008 and 2010. The 2004 Canadian "poppy" quarter was the world's first coloured circulation coin.
-Poppies are often symbolic and can symbolize the sleep and peace. This symbolism was evoked in the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in which a magical poppy field threatened to make the protagonists sleep forever.

Enough facts....pick up that paint brush and finish your painting! I'll see you in my next blog with another fun painting to create!

Happy Painting!
Karen