Local Artist Debbie Giese’s ‘Poppy Heaven’ Chosen For Curated Collection By Writer and Contributor Emily McGinn
Debbie Giese, a local artist and instructor at the Palos Verdes Art Center, is making waves with her art online. Her 2022 oil painting “Poppy Heaven” was recently selected to appear in online fine art marketplace Artsy’s Flora and Fauna collection.
The painting has recently been part of Giese’s display in the “Five Muses” exhibition at the Gallery of Hermosa, which featured art from five women. “Poppy Heaven” is a divergence from some of Giese’s other work — which leans into a more traditional, realist bend — and instead opts for less definition, featuring large swaths of orange intermixed with greens, purples and blues.
Giese recalls painting it after inspiration struck while she was visiting the poppy fields in Lancaster.
“I just remember looking up this hill, and it's just all orange, with the little spots of green here and there, but not much — little purples with flowers in between. I just took it home, and it was just so into my body. That was my inspiration,” Giese says. It's interesting, because I have other people come in and they say, ‘What do you think it is?’ And people say, ‘Oh, I think it's a desert, or I think it's this, or I think it's that.’ So it can be anybody's interpretation, but for me, it was really clear that it came from just being in total awe after going to see the poppy fields. When I was painting it, it was just of the feeling that I had about being there and the color that I saw that was there, and all of the vastness of it.”
While other painting processes tend to blur in her mind, Giese vividly remembers working on “Poppy Heaven.”
“I remember this one was just really inspirational for me inside,” she says. “And I remember feeling incredible joy when I was doing it.”
However, since it was less traditional, Giese did not think it would be as popular as her other works. As a result, she kept it out of the public eye for a few years, and it only recently came out of her vault for the “Five Muses” show.
“This is the first time I've shown this piece anywhere, and it's all been really positive,” Giese says. “I had it underground, not showing it. But I think the time is right for it.”
For any artist, receiving a spot in a curated collection on Artsy can serve as a huge boost for their work. Artsy is the world’s largest online art marketplace, and its curated collections are selected from tens of thousands of artworks in their system. Receiving recognition on Artsy provides a wealth of exposure for Giese, and it also supports the Gallery of Hermosa. When “Poppy Heaven” is showcased in the collection, additional works by Giese — as well as artwork from other artists at the Gallery of Hermosa — pop up below “Poppy Heaven,” providing exposure for the gallery as well as other artists.
“I'm happy that because they selected my painting, the gallery gets looked at as well as the other Muses,” Giese says. “So that makes it a win-win for me. And I'm always about a win-win, you know?”
The fact that “Poppy Heaven” was selected — which came as a surprise to Giese — points to the power of trends in art. Giese says she sees a shift toward less detailed, more freeflowing pieces, especially among the younger art crowd.
After just a short period of time in the curated collection, the piece has received plenty of interest and has sold. However, you can still find Giese’s piece — along with the Gallery of Hermosa — featured online on Artsy.
“Art is in the eye of the beholder,” Giese says. “And what was more important for me is that I loved it, I remembered it and now it's getting recognition that I never expected it to get.”
Check out “Poppy Heaven” on Artsy here.
Bio:
Emily McGinn is a journalist based in the Los Angeles area. She enjoys reporting on and writing about a variety of topics from lifestyle to news, especially in her areas of specialty, environmental science and political science.