Friday 4 October 2013

Now, who's going to pour the tea?

September just flew by, and last week was so busy that I had to give Paint Party Friday a miss. I had actually managed to finish a painting the weekend before, but I just never got round to edit the photos, and put it all into a blog post. But this week, things are back to normal again, and I'm very happy to finally share the painting, made after the sketch in my art journal page that I made first.

Again I kept it simple, with just a little bit of collage bits added. Instead of the map, I used some book paper here to give the table cloth some texture. The photo below also has my favourite, handmade tea cup in it. It really was just the perfect cup. But unfortunately, I've smashed it to pieces in the mean time, by droping a full jar of honey on it, and splashing the freshly made Sencha tea in it all over my kitchen.


Talking about photo editing. Taking photos of my paintings really drives me mad. Getting the right light is a challenge, and reproducing the exact colours seems simply impossible. Even with tweaking everything in Lightroom and Photoshop. Well, this is what the whole painting looks like...

40x40cm, acrylic, no title yet

... but these are more like the actual colours. It's not such a great difference, but you can still see it clearly in the shades of the tea pot (let alone in comparison to the actual colours in the original painting), and it really drives me mad. I'll have to keep working on that.


I'm thinking about going through my kitchen cupboards and cabinets to get all my tea pots out, and to turn them into a little series. And I've got some other ideas for tea paintings too. It's going to be a proper tea party.

But now it's time for a nice cup of tea, while having a look at what everyone else has been
 busy with over at the wonderful  
Paint Party Friday.

17 comments:

  1. A series of teapots sounds wonderful and am loving the beautiful one you have painted. Happy PPF, Annette x
    http://nettysartadventures.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. Hi ! Thank you for your blog and to share with us your gorgeous paintings / sketchs (I love your journal pages too)! I have just discovered your website and I love it!
    It is true that it is really difficult not to have shadows on the subject when photographing the paintings and to obtain real colors... For the colors, did you try to alter the color balance, in Photoshop? You could make the lighter tones (sorry I don't know the accurate vocabulary in english) yellower and modify, if it is needed, the medium and darker tones too...

    Have a good day with an awesome tea in a nice tea cup, though... :)

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  3. beautiful painting. Very nice composition and fantastic colours in background. Looks so sweet. Thank you for sharing

    http://agagasiniak.blogspot.co.uk/

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  4. what a marvellous painting..I love your rustic cups too with the brushes in

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  5. This turned our wonderfully! I love the patterned background - is that a gelli plate pattern you used? I know what you mean about photographing paintings - I not sure how folk are able to get giclee prints of their paintings as mine never seem to photograph exactly as they look in real lif!

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  6. This is so lovely, the colors so bright and cheery and tea is an all time favorite! I'm looking forward to seeing your tea series, great visiting here again!

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  7. I love your idea of a series of teapots. This painting is really fab! Great shading on that teapot!

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  8. Awesome teapot and the colors are perfect! Fabulous. Thanks.
    gloria

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  9. This is so beautiful. I just love your teapot series.

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  10. I am always going to be a fan of a tea series in any form, but this is very cool... there is something about the shape of teapots that scream to be painted... I am getting quite the collection I have to say... and slowly slowly getting them all drawn... xx

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  11. So sorry about your beautiful tea cup!
    Love the teapot painting. :)

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  12. Wow..so very beautiful..visually fantastic..wonderfully meditative for the tea lover! Beautiful!
    Victoria

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  13. Haha I'm drinking tea right now! Too bad the lovely teacup is gone, but you have a wonderful painting of a teapot! Love the background and the collaged bit, too!

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  14. Just wonderful works ...what a beautiful painting...love the strength of the teapot against the color...gorgeous! I look forward to the others...Inspirational!

    Hugs Giggles

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  15. What a wonderful idea for a painting series! Can't wait to see how you paint them!

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  16. Sorry you lost your favorite cup! The painting of your tea pot is lovely and it's photographed and presented very well. It's impossible to reproduce art -- but that's the thing that keeps me going to galleries to see it live. I'm glad we get glimpses of work like yours and that you make such a an effort to get as close to real as possible. Hope to see your series as you create it!

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  17. Your painting is GORGEOUS! I really like it!
    I also find photographing my artwork difficult - particularly since my tones are often so dark in the background - so glare is a problem. I tried Photoshop elements 10 and gave up after the first paragraph in the book! Just can not get my head around it! Hats off to anyone who can! :0)

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