Poppies

There is a kind of knowledge that lives only in the hands of a mother.

My mother taught my sister and me to make little dolls from poppy flowers — a game that required patience, a careful hand, and the particular expertise of knowing which buds were just about to open, because those made the very best dolls. We spent whole afternoons crouched in the garden, searching through the grass at ground level, the world reduced to stems and petals and the extraordinary architecture of a flower seen from below.

This painting was made in the depths of winter, in a freezing studio, from the warmth of that memory. It is poppies as a child sees them — close, luminous, filling the entire field of vision. Four or five open blooms among the buds, with soft purple flowers moving through the composition like a half-remembered dream.

To paint it was to be warm again.

Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: W: 76.2cm x H: 76.2cm (30 x 30 in)
Year: 2025

Original work. One of six paintings in the Meadows collection. Arrives with certificate of authenticity and full care instructions.

"Those made the best dolls."