Flowers of the battlefield

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month one hundred years on from the end of the First World War...while most people around the country reflected on this poignant day... I started a new painting, the seed of which was sown over a year ago when I came across a listing from an auction held in 2014. The sale was of a rose and poppy plucked from the Western Front trenches in June 1917 by Louis James Young and sent to his wife Agnes to mark the anniversary of the loss two years before of their young daughter Lydia.  

Hansons Auctioneers

My initial response was to paint the detail of the rose flower head... I continued on this theme until the first Exposition of my Masters in Fine Art at Gary's School of Art.
After further sketching and writing text in relation to the war aspect of the artefact, by this summer I had decided that this work needed to be given more attention.
​So this morning I created the following study to confirm colours before proceeding onto the two 1m x 1m canvases. 

Later this month I will be opening my studio doors as part of WASPS studios small exhibition and open studios if you would like to see the progress. Link here