Inside the studio - the making of a poppy panel.

A note from the studio about how the panels are made..

Every poppy panel begins well before paint touches timber.
Usually with small colour studies, quick sketches, and those quiet studio moments where combinations of colour or pattern start to settle into something that feels right.

Once a palette or idea begins to hold together, sheets of Australian-made birch ply are cut into panels and prepared in the studio. Each one is sanded, primed and slowly built up with layers of paint.

Some panels remain simple fields of colour — painted in steady, even layers to create the quieter foundations within a composition. Others become more textured and painterly, where the brush marks and thickness of the paint remain visible.

From time to time I introduce printed layers taken from my own artwork. These overlays add another rhythm to the surface — a small moment of pattern or contrast that can anchor a composition.

And occasionally a panel becomes something entirely its own: a one-off piece, painted more freely and never repeated. These tend to become the focal points within a larger arrangement.

The panels themselves follow a small set of sizes — beginning at 70 × 70 mm and building upward in proportion. Keeping to these dimensions allows compositions to grow naturally over time, with different panels sitting comfortably beside each other.

Nothing here is rushed.

Panels are painted in small batches, often returning to the table several times before they feel finished. Each one remains a small painting in its own right before it ever becomes part of a larger composition.

Tile sizes start at 70x70mm, then 70x140mm, 140x140mm, 140x280mm, 280x280mm. Maintaining these sizes ensures your poppy combinations will always sit well together.