Not Finished With Tea Just Yet

Before you say it let me be up front and say yes, I am still exploring tea as a theme, and yes I have been drawing and painting tea related stuff for months now, and no I haven't gone anywhere near exhausting it yet... I have every intention of making many many more tea paintings and drawings in the near future. I have no desire to alienate coffee people, but at the end of the day coffee is only good to me at the beginning of the day... it only helps when I need waking up, but tea is different.

Tea is there beside me in the studio and tells me it is time to work, it is there at the end of the day when my daughter Steve is relating all the tales of the day at school, and it is there after dinner as I blissfully and unashamedly turn my gaze to the beautiful Col John Shepard in Stargate Atlantis. Matt and I are working our way through all five seasons and I have to say while there are some days I am a Ronan Dex sort of girl, most of the time the good Colonel does it for me, what can I say I am a sucker for messy hair and a dry wit ... So now you have two things to judge me for... a love of tea and a love of cheesy sci fi!

So now the confession portion of this post is out of the way, I can move onto the work. I wanted to paint a squat little tea pot but play with a bit of foreshortening and mix up the composition a bit. I was pretty pleased with its progress but felt it needed steam. Now in the past I would have jumped straight in and added some swirls or patterns, but I am getting savvy in my advancing age and now I scanned it and printed it and tried a few things before I decided on just using white gouache. I also wanted to include a tea poem that I have been keeping... and yes the obsession is reaching the heights where I am keeping poems about it, and quotes, and recipes... green tea fairy cakes anyone??? I used the same method to work out which looked best and even thought to scan it in to show you my trials... only question is did I choose right? We are divided here as to which I should have gone with, but it is too late now as the finished product is at the top of the page!!!

Those of you who are over my tea thing may want to stop reading now as I am adding, for your enjoyment,  a cultural component to the post with the poem I used. around the edge of the page... mind you it is uncredited because I forgot to make a note of where I got it, but it doesn't mean I appreciate it any less...

When the world is at odds

and the mind is all at sea.

Then cease the useless tedium 

and brew a cup of tea.

There is a magic in its fragrance,

there is solace in its taste,

and the laden moments vanish

somehow into space.

The world becomes a lovely thing,

there's beauty there as you'll see,

all because you briefly stopped

to brew a cup of tea.

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday and to the Just Journals Link Party... you should grab a cup of tea and head on over and see what everyone has been up to this week. I guarantee it will inspire you!!!