We found a Poppy Field

DSCF0080

Every year, when it's June, the hunt for a poppy field was on. I used to make artwork with poppiesand needed to collect hundreds of petals each year to keep the artwork/collection up. Now i'm officially over poppy artwork, but i still love the flower. So no more hunting for poppy fields, but if I happen upon on, it's a great experience and photo opportunity.I have lots of people emailing me to ask where I find the poppy fields, so here is a link to the map of where I found this one - right behind Failand Village Hall in Bristol.

Lovely week in the Studio

Creating a wall using hung drawings I'm working on (although they do flap about too much)Frames ready to be cleaned/paintedText project artwork, taken out of crappy frames and ready to go into re-restored frames. (Restored with love this time, not a deadline. )Spraying the frames - smooth, matt finish.Here's a few, complete. I like hanging them and seeing them collectively, rather than wrapping them in cling-film straight away, ready for selling at Bristol Harbourside Market (more about that later, but for now, here's the Facebook and the Twitter)Sweet peas from the garden - one of the last batches. Lovely to have them in the studio

I found a poppy field

I finally found a field of poppies. Having searched for one for a long time, (seems like you just need to happen upon one, no one knows where they exist) I was introduced to this one by my lovely boyfriend.

The poppies were quite sparse, but there were still thousands of them, and really tall too.

The field was on the right hand side of the road if you're joining the A46 towards Bath from the M4. Just a bit past the Marshfield bakery/dairy/ice cream place.

Poppy Time

Cor the poppies are out already!

What a surprise I got driving past Eastville roundabout. The best place to find poppies in Bristol. Hundreds and hundreds of poppy plants. I did ten minutes of picking, took them home and filled half of the Sunday paper and an hour of my time lining them up to be pressed for the 3 months they need before they turn beautifully translucent.

Another batch for my poppy collection, part of my ongoing poppy project. I have been doing this for 5 years now and have thousands. Soon, it'll become something but for now I am happy with the collecting and meticulous pressing (each petal needs to be completely flat and intact).

Drying the poppies

Most of my notebooks have poppy petals in them. I press them, wait about a month for them to throughly dry then peel them from the pages of notepads and sketchbooks, and add the dried petals to my stash. Some of this batch went a little mouldy, but they look beautiful with it.

Today's Poppies

Poppy Project

Back to square one, scanning them in, like I used to. I have many petals now, but they are so very fragile, I don't know how they can become anything more than poppies.

Poppies

I have been collecting poppies for a couple of Summers now, They are so delicate - like the thinnest paper imaginable. My favorite flower by far. Wild flowers are incredible. It is a mission of mine to fine a field of poppies, and spend a few days pressing them, keeping them in a big book until they loose their moisture and then .... well, I don't know, I haven't got any further than imagining the joy of collecting them. I think it's maybe enough to just collect. A poppy museum? I have to sow some seeds after the winter, I want to find some sneaky patches to plant some, where no one will miss them if I pick them. Imagine if you could write on seeds and when the plant grew, it had your words in the petals. That reminds me of those strange 'grow your own boyfriend' things you have to soak in water.

Image courtesy of

www.coventrybirder.co.uk

The BBC tells you how to grow poppies: "Oriental poppies are easy to grow and almost thrive on neglect." But I want plain old red ones, they are pretty enough.So my question is: where can I find a field of poppies this Summer?