crazy poppy heads

2 February 2015

Poppy Head. A slang term for someone who uses opium in any of its forms. Based on the word 'pot head' for marijuana users.

I haven't painted for about 10 days, because we've been having lovely summer weather and it's been awesome to get outdoors, go surfing, ride my bike, take my dog for long walks...

Sometimes after a few days 'off' it's hard to get started again. It's a bit like being unfit. But yesterday was rainy and I had a art date with a friend. Nothing like having someone else along to get the creative juices flowing. We spread out lots of supplies across my studio floor, wracked our unfit brains about what to paint and then started by just splashed paint around. Not thinking too much. Turning off the right side of the brain. Always good fun!

And then suddenly the ideas just started flowing.

My friend had found these old placemats at the local recycle centre and we painted on the back of those. On the cork side. This created a new and exciting surface to work on.

We worked in similar colours and both with the poppy heads I'd collected on one of my walks. It was inspiring to look across at what the other person was doing and bounce ideas off each other, offer suggestions and confidence boosting compliments - no critics allowed!

When I woke up this morning, and looked again at my piece, it didn't look finished. Not nearly crazy enough for a 'poppy head'. So I added lots more doodles and colours and I'm now calling it finished.

My friend left me with another mat, and I've already got an idea for the next one.

Detail shots...