Our Poppies are Popping!
—and More “Less is More”
Today I’m taking a brief break from my All About Birds mini-series to share my recent art of Spring wildflowers.
Mexican Poppies have been blooming in our yard and in pots on our patio for over seven weeks now! The flowers have seemed so cheerful that I HAD to paint them!
Mexican Poppies are native to the Southwest U.S., but I need to point out that our Poppies did not ✨ automagically germinate, grow, and flower, especially this year. The only reason they grew and flowered is because of serious intervention by humans, a.k.a. Hubby and me.
In mid-November and mid-December we planted lots of Mexican Poppy seeds in our yard and in pots on our patio, and have hand-watered them 1-2 times/week since then, using water from our rainwater harvesting tanks. It’s been so dry here in Tucson the last seven months, I doubt we would’ve seen even one Poppy pop up without our TLC!
How dry has it been here? I’m glad you asked, because I created this handy-dandy chart to illustrate this point!
As you see, for six of the past seven months (shown in red), we’ve received rain amounts below average (in most cases, well below average!) compared to the historical monthly averages for our yard. As a result, for the last seven months we’ve received 1.55” total rain, during a time period in which we historically have averaged 5.87” total rain. 😬 According to the National Weather Service Southeast Arizona Drought Page, Tucson is currently in a Severe Drought (D2) (“Crop or pasture losses likely. Water shortages common. Water restrictions imposed.”) And that’s only Level 2 of 4, with 4 being the worst!
Thus…the rarity of our Poppies this year, my immense appreciation of seeing all our Poppy flowers, and my NEED to paint them!
*Sigh*…after that bit of climate news, let’s move on to more art!
More “Less is More”
You may remember that the last time I joined my Art Peeps for plein air sketching, I experimented with an approach of “Less is More” with the goal of actually finishing (or almost finishing) my art on site. As I reported in my blog post How Thinking Small Can Lead to Success—Less is More!, my approach was wildly successful! 🥳
I embraced Less is More again during my latest plein air sketching meetup, and found once again that when I have limited sketching time on site, working smaller, not faster, works really well for me! I chose a small subject—a blooming Globe Mallow (which no doubt receives supplemental water from its human friends, as well!)—and created small art of it.
Here’s a photo of my art (showing what I was able to accomplish in < 1.5 hours on site), a ruler for scale, my favorite tiny “000” size brush, and my teeny tiny watercolor palette (showing the colors I mixed for this art). Yup, that’s the same Teeny Tiny Watercolor Palette I posted about previously. 🤩
I finished my art of the Globe Mallow the next day, and here it is, in all its 2 inch x 4 inch glory!
One of the many rewarding aspects of creating nature art is getting the opportunity to commune with your subject and learn more about it. In the case of this Globe Mallow, I sat down next to it, said hello, and was able to touch it and closely observe it from different angles—all helpful for creating my art! I feel my art captured the subject well and is simple at the same time. Speaking of which:
“Simple is good.”
- Jim Henson
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The Mexican Poppies and Desert Mallow are welcome images for me, bringing to mind all the years I’ve loved them. The drought conditions are startling and deeply concerning. I applaud your ability to use runoff from your big tanks. And with it, assuring a beautiful springtime bloom. 🥰