Tea Ceremony, 2010, 9"x9.5", 23cm x 24cm, india ink, pencils, oils, beeswax.

I came back to this little drawing -a year later turning it into a little painting. Rubbed out some of the green pencil, brushed melted beeswax over it, a little sepia oil colour, wrote into it. I should have left it at this point.

Tea Ceremony

The grace in living,
teapot, tea leaves, steeping.
She bends to pour.

When the waters
washed away the homes.
Clotted blood
of his wounds.
Petals floating on dirges.

Yet laughter of lovers,
her heart of memory.
Landscapes of green
move through us.

Comfort of the gentle
and exact tea ceremony.
Love is everything
the great artist sings.

(c)Brenda Clews, 2009.



Tea Ceremony, 2010, 9"x9.5", 23cm x 24cm, india ink, pencils, oils, beeswax.

This is where I left it after many hours of working. It's glued (with a natural, non-toxic glue) onto another sheet and the writing is scratched through. It spent the night being flattened under many books before this scan.

(Click on images for larger size.)



Slideshow of process from sketch to finished.


                                          

Earlier versions: ink drawing; mid-way.



Tea Ceremony

The grace in living,
teapot, tea leaves, steeping.
She bends to pour.

When the waters
washed away the homes.
Clotted blood
of his wounds.
Petals floating on dirges.

Yet laughter of lovers,
her heart of memory.
Landscapes of green
move through us.

Comfort of the gentle
and exact tea ceremony.
Love is everything
the great artist sings.

©Brenda Clews, 2009

                                 

I didn't finish the patterns of her kimono on all the fabric. The rising from the earth, the rockface I mentioned in my last post, that sense of the Canadian Shield, the Precambrian rock, this is what I wanted to convey. Leaving some of the fabric without pattern seemed to emphasize this quality in the overall shape of the composition. I mean, along with the grace and delicacy of an important spiritual and social ritual - the tea ceremony.