Art Spectrum® Poppy Red Soft Round Pastel shade.
This warm, summery, blood red is based on the pigment Naphthol, or PR 9, not to be confused with the Puerto Rican highway known by the same name (which isn’t even remotely the same colour!). This tends to get a bad rap as a pigment for watercolours and oils, but in our pastel it performs beautifully, achieving great four-star lightfastness ratings and giving us one of the most delicious reds.
Poppy Red is a colour that is full of life, and indeed, the poppy it is inspired by has been a central motif in rituals to do with life and death for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks and Romans offered poppies to the dead, while seeing its intense colour as a celebration of life, promising resurrection and renewal. This association was renewed during the 20th century as it became the flower of wartime remembrance, recalling the many who fell in battle in the poppy-filled fields of Europe. In a different slant, the Persians called the poppy the ‘eternal flower of love’.
 Poppy Red P 511P |
PR9 |
