The original work was painted in oils in a remote NSW country town on ‘retreat’ with my prophetic art team from DaySpring. It was a glorious – deeply meaningful – love-saturated – time away with precious friends. It was a time of transition in my personal life. I felt adrift, but somehow painting ‘anchored’ me. How fitting that our art subject would be the highly symbolic ‘poppy’. The poppy is the enduring symbol of remembrance. ‘Lest we forget’ means to remember that lives were lost, laid down, and taken during the turmoil of war, but the poppy also symbolises the peace of sleep and regeneration, and the eternal life of the soul.