The Poppy Flower is a symbol of remembrance and it is thought that the red of the petals represents the blood of all those who gave their lives. The black represents the mourning of those who didn’t have their loved ones return home. The green represents the grass and crops growing in the future prosperity after the war destroyed so much.
ANZAC Day is a day for commemoration, for thanking veterans who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peace keeping operations. To recognise both past and current armed service personnel.
For most of us ANZAC Day 2020 will be unlike any other previous. Like so many around Australia I will be marking this special occasion by walking to the end of my driveway on the 25th April and reflecting on the services of our armed forces.
Rare Ovarian cancer Inc (ROC Inc) rock painting group for ovarian cancer awareness called Rock for ROC started on Facebook February 2018. Each year I have created special Poppy Flower rocks and this year I am going to do the same but the final coat with be a good spray of Glen20 and I will be putting them out at the top of my driveway and on my brick wall as a mark of respect.
With many of us social distancing and or working from home as well as School holiday time, I thought it would be fun to create a step by step project how to create and paint your own Poppy Flower rock with a few easy steps to follow.
I painted the background of my rocks white so that the flower stands out better. When the paint was dry, I drew a simple Poppy Flower shape in pencil. I used two acrylic red paint colours one slightly darker than the other. I placed the two reds side by side on the pallet. Now drag your paint brush through so that both colours go onto the brush at the same time. Like in the picture you should be able to see both colours.
This is my big tip when painting the petals create your strokes for the flower from the middle of the flower then out to the edge, make sure you leave the gap in the middle of the flower that will be painted as the black centre in the coming steps. When you are doing the petal don’t keep going over them, just drag your brush from the centre out to the edge of the petal, then load up the brush again with paint and do the next petal till you’ve done the whole flower. Leave the paint to dry or if you are impatient like me get the hairdryer out to make it dry faster.
Paint the black centre of the flower and while that is drying, I painted the green steam and the steam of the bud in green and added a little bit of red to create the bud flower.
Viola you have created a Poppy Flower rock.
Lest we forget