Summertime, the season of flowers!
So why not portraits of flowers? For me, flowers have personalities, individuality, presence. And when it comes to taking photographs, they have as much or more of those qualities as humans. They have other good qualities as well — like being cooperative, and never fidgeting or being difficult about “my best angle” or “the sun is in my eyes!”
One of my favorite flowers is the poppy. Here, then, to lead off a summer series of Flower Portraits, I happily present Mam’selle POPPY:
The American artist Georgia O’Keeffe painted poppies, huge paintings to stop you in your tracks if you pass one on a wall. She said why she did so: “Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time… I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty.”
Of course she also said: “I hate flowers – I paint them because they’re cheaper than models and they don’t move.”
Well, yes, we’re agreed on that point — but I don’t hate flowers! And, I certainly believe, neither did she. I am SURE she had her tongue firmly in her cheek when she said that. Who could hate such a gorgeous, self-confident, radiant beauty as Mlle. Poppy!
(Why does she present herself to me as a young French girl? Because that is where I have seen her and her brilliant red companions by the multitudes punctuate the golden wheat fields of Burgundy, a scene that never fails to take my breath away.)
I love poppies so , Of course, think this is a great choice to begin a series of Flower Portraits. You must have been at my shoulder, in the woods, yesterday, as I was capturing portraits of wild flowers and butterflies!
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Would that I were! I miss France —
But just remembering the poppies in the wheat fields makes me happy —
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it has been one of the joys of being here, seeing so many poppies wild and free. I just love them.
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🙂
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Poppies are a favorite of mine, too. Will you be posting sunflowers next?
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Not for a while —
Another young française coming next —
(PS. I enjoyed your book Life is Full of Sweet Spots very much, Mary.)
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Thanks. Glad you enjoyed my book, in which poppies (and your photos) would have fit very nicely! Sunflowers found several spots, though, and tomorrow I plan to go to Buttonwood Farm (http://www.sunflowersforwishes.com/) in Griswold, CT, specifically to enjoy their fields of sunflowers. If all goes well, I hope to get some nice photos to post, not to mention a big bouquet to enjoy in my sunroom.
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Good, then we’ll have sunflowers on your blog!
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When I put France and flowers together I go straight to Lavender! I know, I know…cliché, but I do love lavender. Poppies are wonderful too. Looking forward to the next revelation.
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Lavender and poppies together, what a color combo! But I don’t think they bloom at the same time nor (perhaps) even in the same places.
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That reminds me of another colour combo – just after I opened my restaurant which was a country venue I was given red long stem roses as a gift which for practical reasons I popped into a jug of wild sunflowers that happened to be on the counter. The effect was magical as lavender and poppies would be!
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The red and brilliant yellow must have been spectacular!
What kind of restaurant? Do you still have it, or since I think not, do you miss it?
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I ran a couple of restaurants and then had my own business at the same time that I had the girls. Love the business but am now taking late ‘maternity’ leave. I sold when Sarah started school as it all just became too much and I was burning out. It was a lovely rustic country restaurant with a focus on home style food. After working for others for so long it was magical to experience the freedom that comes with having ones own place. I’ll do it again one day, no doubt, but for now I am just making the most of the time I have with the girls. Thanks for asking Judith. Perhaps one day we will get to chat more about it over a pastry at one of the lovely spots you have featured on your blog since I have been following.
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Wouldn’t it be grand! I’ll think of that next time I go to one of the cafés, and hold it as a lovely wish!
I doubt that I would ever have had the stamina and grit to be a professional chef, but it certainly holds great fascination for me to this day. So I hope one day — if that’s what you still want to do — that you will have the opportunity. Eating in a rustic country restaurant with a focus on home style food — that’s everyone’s idea of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
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A touching portrait Judith, love the brilliant freshness and who doesn’t love a poppy!
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I just wish they weren’t so scarce in the US, at least they’re pretty scarce here in the Northeast.
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C’est magnifique!
Did I even spell that right?
I think GOK might have had a split personality, or maybe she was just a good jokester.
Well done, Mlle. Poppy. Great selfie. 😉
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Spelling was parfait!
Whatever she was truly like, she was unusual. An original.
LOVE love love the idea of Mlle Poppy taking a selfie!
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It seems all the rage and I do so want to appear with it. (Using the phrase “with it” already disqualifies me as with it!!!)
😉
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Don’t you hate how that works?
😦
Don’t fret, though —they’ll be “out” soon, I predict. Any selfies I’ve appeared in as part of a group make us all look like we’re in a funhouse mirror. Not good.
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I hear ya! Like those dog photos with the giant noses or something ugh! Out? Not soon enough for me!
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Yeah. 😦
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Poppy is also popular in Japan. The flower is beautiful and cute.
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I didn’t realize poppies grew in Japan! If you see one growing, please take a photo of it for me!
Domo arigato!
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Your mention of Georgia O’Keeffe’s tongue-in-cheek comment about hating flowers reminded me of a painter I used to visit. Her studio was adorned with bundles of silk flowers, which – I soon learned – she would arrange in vases in order to make still life paintings. I never really liked them – especially when she had me take up a brush and create something with which to decorate my barren walls. I still have that gigantic, ugly watercolour, and am on the verge of cutting it up and reusing the paper. Your post might just make me do it too! 😀
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Sounds like it’s overdue —
Go for it! 😉
(You can be assured that this particular poppy is not silk; it grew in our garden in the Berkshires!)
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She doesn’t move but sometimes the breeze blows her!
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And when that happens, she dances!
(Thanks for a lovely image, Gilly.)
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Ah another stunner! Poppies I have seen, but not any as gorgeous as your model 🙂
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Poppy + Sunlight = Gorgeous!
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A nice sequence of flower posts you’ve been building here Judith 🙂 Poppies have vanished from many of our fields as farmers seek to achieve maximum yields 😦 However they still adorn our hedgerows and railway embankments – notably in Norfolk where the preserved line from Sherringham to Holt is known as ‘The Poppy Line’.
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You wouldn’t by any chance happen to have an archive photo of poppies along the railway line?????
That would be swell! My memories are mostly of poppies in Burgundy. New England is not real hospitable to them. 😦
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Not to hand Judith but I do have some from the roadside in Hertfordshire and today is a good day to use those.
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Good, I’ll get over there soon to see —
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A late Hello to Mam’selle POPPY! Einfach reizend.
Unfortunately we’ve lost our salmon-colored ones. But being surrounded by wild poppies on the fields. No real summer without them!
Herzlichst, karin
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One of the things I miss most about France — the poppies!
None around here, unless someone plants a few in their garden.
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