Poppies in Peril

This is a painting done in the summer of 2005 not long after I began painting. Forty Acres Farm is situated on a quiet country road between the market town of Easingwold and Strensall in North Yorkshire. This spectacular display of poppies cried out to be painted but this was a not uncommon sight back then. Ten years later and it is not so. I wanted to do a poppy painting as part of our 'Double Vision 2014' exhibition last year but had real difficulty in finding any poppy fields. Whether it is down to more intensive farming methods or overuse of pesticides I don't know. Once upon a time the poppies would have been harvested with the wheat - now you buy a loaf with added poppy seeds at an increased cost! It would be a sad loss indeed if this iconic symbol of summer and remembrance disappeared from our countryside.

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