"Rex Manning Day" Fauvist Bouquet Original Painting Featuring Poppy Flowers in Tea Tin by Lara Lee Meintjes

In this whimsical 12x16 painting on cradled birch board, Rex Manning has awoken to the nightmare that is proof of the pastness of his own popularity: his face on a novelty tea tin, to delight elderly fans everywhere! The queasy expression on our (questionable) hero's face is made even more comical by the pair of self-serious lions flanking him and the heavy-handed filigree adorning the rest of the design. The text on the tin reads "Oh Rexy, you're so sexy" in black, white, and gold lettering. The tin is a vivid tomato red, and beneath the emblem centering Rex's face reads the word "tea" indicating that in some now past moment, the vessel held tea leaves instead of the vibrant bouquet of pink, red, and orange poppy flowers it now contains. The red vase rests on a geranium print floral liberty tablecloth in pink and green and deep prussian blue. This piece is my annual homage to Empire Records, the film that perhaps most defined my late nineties teen years. It will ship in a box from my studio in Oakland, California. The unpainted pale wood sides of the board upon which it is painted are visible in the additional photographs.


Subject: Still Life, Popular culture, Floral, Botanic
Category: Painting
Year: 2023
Mediums: Acrylic, Gouache, Ink, Marker
Materials: Wood
Styles: Folk, Fine Art, Modern, Pop Art
Dimensions: 12 W x 16 H x 1 D in

Packaging: Ships in a Box