Poppies are one of my favourite flowers, so I wanted to create something special with them. I used my biggest canvas yet and wanted to create something calm and dreamy. At first, I simply had a dark blue background in mind, but once the red and blue came together, they reminded me of a bright moonlit night.

I also decided to leave the blue underpainting visible in the stems instead of painting over it. I really liked the harmony between the dark background and the blue tones, and I’m so happy I went with that decision. It makes the whole painting feel even more like a calm, quiet yet bright night.