Category: Bite Sized Insights

The Signification of the Poppy’ series began with a painting created for a web based competition in 2007 – ‘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 and its association with war.

Here are some images of the preliminary work behind the piece:

Sketch for poppy painting by Jacqueline Hammond

Sketch for poppy painting by Jacqueline Hammond

Sketch for poppy painting by Jacqueline Hammond

Sketch for poppy painting by Jacqueline Hammond

Mindmap

The final piece – A Troubled World, 70x70cm, Acrylics on canvas, Jacqueline Hammond

After the painting challenge came to an end I was commissioned by one of the judges from Seeking Picasso to produce a series of paintings for The McNeill Gallery, Radlett, Hertfordshire. This series was exhibited in the gallery and led to further representation. http://www.mcneillgallery.com (the gallery has now relocated to Pewsey in Wiltshire)

Synopsis to the Signification of the Poppy series:

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, these represent the many 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 beauty can be deceiving. A field of flowers; more than a pretty picture.

The series became a collection – View the collection here

All enquiries – info@jacquelinehammond.co.uk