Grass painting

Grass paintings were a type of art used on the planet of Alderaan. Botanic artists would use the endless flat grasslands as their canvas. They used flowers as if paint and the wind as if a brush to "paint" a design.

Grass artists had to apply a five-year license to create their art. The first would be the creation of the work while the others would be the painting becoming a collaboration the artist and the environment. The best artists were skilled in meteorology, though no one ever succeeded in predicting the weather, or growth-patterns.

One grass painter, Ob Khaddor, was a troublemaker at Alderaan University. When he heard that Emperor Palpatine was coming for a visit, Khaddar decided to create a painting "to honor the Emperor". He planted hundreds of thousands of seeds from various flowers to create a painting depicting the Emperor himself. When Palpatine came for a visit he rode on a sail barge to see the glorious portrait.

But when the Emperor looked, aided by his advisors and his Imperial Guards, black lilies spread out across the Emperor's face, making his skin look old and crippled. The Emperor was outraged, and sent squads of stormtroopers to burn the painting to ashes.

Ob Khaddar left before the Emperor arrived. A bounty was placed on him but no one had been able to track him down.

Text and facts from the “Grass painting” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.