This week, November 11 marks the 100 year anniversary to the end of World War I in 1918. Also known as Armistice Day, students in our classes reflected on Remembrance Day and the meaning of the poppy. The poppy flower only grows in the absence of other flowers and in ground that has been churned. In the poem In Flanders Fields, written by Canadian Dr. John McCrae on May 3, 1915 observed the poppies growing between the crosses on the soldiers’ graves. Poppies are now an international symbol of remembrance around the world. This poem was the inspiration for one of Jacqueline Hurley’s pieces Fields Of Remembrance in her War Poppy Collection.
Jacqueline Hurley is a British Artist who began painting in 2014. Both her grandfather’s fought in World War Two, one in the British Army and one in the Royal Navy. Two of her great grandfathers fought in World War One. A friend of Jacqueline’s, Neil Dunstan, was a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan. Jacqueline began painting as a tribute and remembrance to them all.
In 2015, 2016 and 2017 Jacqueline was invited by the Royal British Legion to exhibit the War Poppy Collection at The Royal Albert Hall for the Festival of Remembrance. In 2017, forty-one of her remembrance paintings were exhibited at the National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire, from March – July 2017, where they were visited by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cambridge. Her artwork is featured on the Commemorative Collection in England presented by the Jubilee Mint, a series of four Commemorative 24 -Carat Gold plated medals, depicting a piece of her original artwork.
Although Jacqueline’s imagery depicts scenes of war, she brings a sense of peace to her work. Jacqueline paints in both expressionism and impressionism styles. Her original works are painted impasto in acrylic, using texture to create mood and depth, with red remembrance poppies juxtaposed against gritty impressionistic landscapes. Her paintings feature silhouettes which help her audience connect with the works in a more personal, emotional and sentimental way. Students created their own bright red poppies blowing in the wind, contrasting against a dark moody sky creating their own Remembrance Day piece.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead: Short days ago,
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved: and now we lie
In Flanders fields!
Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.