My Top Eight – Paintings With Poppies

Over the years I have created a number of paintings with red poppies featured in the piece. In Canada, Scotland and England, red poppies signify Remembrance Day and often conjure memories and thoughts of loved ones who served on this day. Poppies are also seen in the Rocky mountains in late Spring and early summer, one of many spring wildflowers you can spot from roadside and mountain trail vantage points. While big red poppies with black centres are the most beautiful and common, you can also see large pink, blue and white poppies strewn throughout wildflower fields. The most common poppy is a wild poppy of orange, seen all over western Canada in the spring and often along highways and city garden plots. I love poppies they are proud flowers, with very substantial stalks and centers, with the most delicate tissue like petals that are transparent at times when sunlight filters through. They do not last long, but they are significant and stunning flowers.

In addition to being a strikingly beautiful flower with medicinal properties, the poppy is a plant steeped in symbolism. From darker themes such as death and war to hopes of peace, luxurious living, and imagination, the poppy represents many aspects of the human experience. Poppies contain many opiates, including codeine, morphine, and thebaine. While these substances can, of course, be harmful when consumed outside of medicinal applications, they are also effective pain relief agents and can induce sleep while settling the nerves. While many people instinctively associate the red poppy with peace as well as death because hope for a peaceful future seems a natural response to the destruction of war, the reinforcement of the poppy’s symbolism of peace has gained traction in recent years. I often associate poppies with imagination and dreaming, for me the dreamy quality comes from a scene in the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy falls asleep in a filed of poppies. No matter your connection to this magical flower, you cannot deny it’s delicate beauty, no matter the shade. Here are eight paintings with poppies.

Poppies For Louise, 2011 Brandy Saturley

I’ll Carry That Weight, 2020 Brandy Saturley

Say a Little Prayer, painting of Remembrance Day poppy on jean jacket, 2024, Brandy Saturley

Dreaming in The Colours of Eh, 2014 Brandy Saturley

A Cup for Louise, 2013 Brandy Saturley

Golden Ram, 2011 Brandy Saturley

Remember Us, acrylic on canvas, 2014 – Brandy Saturley

Freedom Canoe with Poppies, 2015 Brandy Saturley

Seven paintings featuring scarlet red poppies. All very symbolic paintings, they bring memories, reminders, joy and peace. These paintings tell imaginative stories using the symbol of the poppy.

Like these paintings? See more paintings by Canadian visual artist, Brandy Saturley.