Original artwork description:

The poppy poppyulation comprises many weird species with Latin names - prickly (argemone), pygmy (canbya), wind (stylomecon) and not to forget the desert bearpaw (arctomecon). However, the poppies permanently lodged in our consciousness, like infernal earworms, are the opium poppy (papaver somniferum) - the source of morphine, misery and Netflix movies - and the corn, or Flanders, poppy (papaver rhoeas) - the only good thing to come out of World War 1. The soil of the northern France/Belgian battlefields was of relatively poor quaility until it became churned up and fertilised by the nitrogen in WW1 explosives, the lime from shattered buildings and, sorry about this, the nourishing bones and blood of the slaughtered men, horses ,dogs and donkeys. The poppy is classed as a weed due to this innate ability to survive on the most unlikely of terrains. If you want a good poppy crop in your back garden, be sure to murder an Austrian archduke next to your shed.

Materials used:

Acrylics

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