A Tale of Two Poppies | Christmas Gift 1

In April 2017, I participated in my second Knoxville Museum of Art Artists on Location plein air event. Now that I live out of state, it was a little tricky to plan ahead and know where I'd want to paint or what was blooming around town; yet I was pretty sure there would be good flowers to paint at the UT Gardens, and the poppy below was solid proof of that. It was the first of four paintings for the show.

Back home, the bright painting struck a chord with my sister-in-law; but she wanted to fill a narrow wall space with a long painting, not a square one. With photos and the previous painting on hand, I was able to add some detail to the leaves and better refine the flower, while keeping the speckled blue background and the vivid colors nearly identical on the second painting (left). Anticipating her reaction Christmas Eve and the artwork hanging in the near future!