Tag Archive for: Remembrance Day

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Paintings With Poppies

My Top Seven – 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 seven paintings with poppies.

Poppies For Louise, 2011 Brandy Saturley

I’ll Carry That Weight, 2020 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, 2014 Brandy Saturley

Freedom Canoe with Poppies, 2015 Brandy Saturley

Seven paintings featuring scarlett 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.

April 19, 2022

Remembrance Day Painting 2020

Artist Process

Making a Remembrance Day Painting in The Pandemic Year

Talking about making a Remembrance Day Painting, and looking at the artist process behind making a painting in 2020.

In Canada, red poppies seem to conjure thoughts and feelings about Remembrance Day and family that has served, or is currently serving in our Canadian Forces. I have painted red poppies a number of times over the years, but none seemed to touch Canadians as much as this piece created in 2014, inspired by the women of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.

Perhaps it is because many of us had grandmothers, mothers and even great-grandmothers serve. Many people have sent me the most lovely notes about this piece over the years, it seems to connect with Canadians widely and on a deep level, with many seeing their own mothers in the piece. I have been interviewed about the piece, shown it in public and private galleries. Please enjoy this Remembrance Day Art.

A New Painting with Poppies: with this new painting my focus is Remembrance Day, as it is approaching and it has been 6 years since I have referenced the day in my artwork. I am mindful of how this day will look in this pandemic year. As this year is quickly coming to a close, I am looking at the paintings which I have made this year. I feel that this piece here, right behind my bowler hat and white gloves, is my very best of the year.

This piece brings together my pop aesthetic, realistic details, and symbolism – it is striking and simple in my design. I begin painting by sketching an outline of my idea on stretched cotton canvas. Then I outline again and add shading in a complementary colour, to the final colour I will be painting on top. In this case I am using variations of green for the outline and shading details, as the final colours in the piece will be variations of red.

Next, I begin to colour block and lay down big swathes of reds and oranges, using vigorous brushstrokes.

I continue adding layers of colour from background to foreground, repeating the process with more care each time. This part of the process adds depth, fine textures and various tones and shades. I am creating dimension as the piece begins to come to life and pop off the canvas. I also add the flesh tones to the face so that I can assess the overall tonal balance of my palette and within the piece.

I continue to repaint the entire painting, until the desired tonality is reached and definition is achieved. Then I go into the painting with a finer brush and lighter touch and work on the details, linework, and highlights. In this case metallic and interference paints have been added to bring reflective elements to the piece, adding to the overall ‘glow’.

Time for the final review: which has become known as my ‘chair of contemplation’ moments. The time when I stare for a long period of time as my eyes roll back and forth across the canvas and in differing lights, until I am satisfied that the piece is complete.

It has been said that Picasso created 50,000 works in his lifetime, and is known for about 100 of these. Not every painting is a masterpiece, and you must put in the time and make a lot of bad paintings to reach the masterpieces.

I am very happy with how this piece has evolved, and I hope you will enjoy it as well.

I’ll Carry That Weight (Spirit of Remembrance) Original acrylic painting on canvas honouring Remembrance Day 2020 – by Canadian Artist Brandy Saturley. The painting measures 36×36 inches, and is made with acrylic paints on the finest cotton canvas.

You can see more paintings celebrating Canada on my website.

Sincerely Yours,

Brandy Saturley

October 28, 2020

10 Remembrance Day Paintings

Remembrance Day Art

10 Remembrance Day Paintings: Honouring Canada’s Role in the Wars

Every year on November 11th a somber mood blankets Canada, as a Canadian artist this national day of Remembrance has bled into my artwork. Some Canadian artists’ express their thoughts through poetry, music and even film. My chosen mediums are painting and photography and I have used these mediums to honour the day in many different ways. When thinking about 10 Remembrance Day paintings, I think of world history.

When I was younger my first encounter with ‘Canadian wartime art’ was through the eyes of painter Alex Colville. A celebrated Canadian painter, illustrator and lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy, Colville’s work from the fields of war and beyond, touched my soul and captured my attention. In fact, he was the first Canadian artist to which I could relate at the age of 12, perhaps this was because I came from a family, like many of my generation in Canada, that had grandparents and even parents active in Canada’s military. His paintings appeared ‘simplistic’ and ‘designed’ these paintings edited out what was necessary and focused on a central ‘tone’ thorough muted palettes. At closer look, his technique was incredibly detailed and rigorous, not unlike that of regimented life in the military.

Over the years I have come to express my thoughts on Remembrance Day, influenced by the poetry of Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, with his iconic poem, “In Flanders Fields”. A poem heard annually on November 11th, since the day I was born. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. “In Flanders Fields” was first published on December 8 of that year in the London magazine Punch.

So much art created out of war, and we are thankful for all the expressions, giving us a unique window into the souls of the artists who experienced it first-hand and perhaps into the souls and minds of those on the battlefields. Many of these great works cataloged in the Canadian War Museum, a journey into the past, one that we hope not to repeat in the future.

Remembrance Day, was first marked in Canada on Nov. 11, 1919. That date marked the one-year anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended the First World War. This Sunday marks the 100-year anniversary of the end of the war.

To celebrate the 100-yr celebrations of Remembrance Day, and that crimson red poppy which signifies the day and honours those who have served and are serving in the Canadian Military. Remembrance Day Art created between 2011-2018 honouring ‘Poppy Day’ and our Canadian military.

Spirit of Remembrance – I’ll carry that weight…a vivid and dynamic modern painting capturing my feelings about Remembrance Day in Canada.

Remember Us – a symbolic painting honoring the Canadian Women’s Army Corps and their roles in the military

Poppies For Louise – a symbolic painting with Canadian flag imposed on the horizon and red poppies in the foreground, symbolizing remembrance and freedom

Golden Ram – a somber landscape painting with Big Horn sheep and red poppies against the Rocky Mountains of Golden, BC

Freedom Canoe With Poppies – Freedom canoe is a green canoe filled with red poppies referencing Remembrance Day in Canada.

THE 100 POPPIES PROJECT – Photography from 2017 Remembrance Day project which honoured the 100th anniversary of Vimy, in which a donation was made to the the Veterans in exchange for 100 poppies as photographed in the project

The People of Canada Portrait Project – a crowd-sourcing portrait project between myself and Canadians across the country, in which Canadians send in photos and I paint their portrait and a background based on my interview with the subjects. Currently 20 portraits have been completed, as we head into Remembrance Day 2022. Below are portraits, ‘Vimy Jam‘ honouring a meeting at the 100th anniversary Vimy celebrations in Vimy France.

There we are, 10 artworks for Remembrance Day – some painted on canvas and some photographic. On this Remembrance Day my hope is that we continue to come together as we work towards tearing down borders on a course to becoming one world. Honoring the past, on a course set for the future.

See more paintings with red poppies here.

November 8, 2018