Sitting in a Poppy Field / Basingstoke Poppies by Amanda Bates

Splendid filed of poppies Amanda, super colours

Lovely subject well done and you must have really enjoyed painting it in the open air.

I did enjoy it, Marjorie, and the colours are easy for poppies, Ros: Cadmium Red :-) Athough it didn't really sing until I added a tiny bit of Rose Madder-Phthalo Blue violet.

Wonderfully fresh, vibrant and a great painting. The light is just right.

Serendipity, Gudrun. The field, the weather, the day...

What a joyful picture Amanda. I love the zing of the red poppies and the wonderful impression of sitting down at eye level with them. Did you achieve the whole painting with a painting knife - very impressed!

Lots of energy and vibrancy in this painting. Fabulous.

Thank you, all. It was a pleasure to paint. ~~~ Julie, I used two painting knives and a colour shaper (the three foremost tools in this picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zalamanda/9227163639/ ). Mostly the bigger knife, but there were some places where the shorter blade was useful. The colour shaper is good for drawing (curved) lines in the wet paint - good for my loopy signature and, of course, the curved poppy stems. ~~~ An old blog post about why I use knives in the field can be found here: http://amanda-bates-artist.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/oily-knife-part-2-knife.html

I am just enjoying looking through your gallery and all the comments on your wonderful work. Each picture a delight especially this one.