All the Tea in China......

I've just returned from Yunnan, China, a stop on the way home from Australia. What a fantastic place! Naturally I wanted to have a tea experience there after all the tea I'd consumed in Sydney.

Tea is taken very seriously in this part of the world and I was fortunate enough to visit tea houses that featured dozens of kinds as well as tea shops where sampling tea is an integral part of the entire experience. Here a friend of our son Nick treated us to a wonderful 15 year old tea grown on her family's plantation which we drank in tiny glass bowls that were filled with freshly brewed tea numerous times:



Teas are general sold in large, solid cakes that are gently broken apart when the tea is prepared:


So I didn't collect any tea bags for my work, but I wasn't disappointed. The tea we drank was rich and delicious and certainly will inspire more tea pieces as I clean the cobwebs and dead ladybugs out of my studio and get back to work.

New Brunswick Hay Rolls

This painting is based on another of the photos I took in Canada last September.  This beautiful vista appeared as we rode along past autumn fields.  There were fallow fields already harvested, fields of potatoes and corn and this field of rolls of hay basking in the afternoon sun...

"New Brunswick Hay Rolls"

acrylic - 30" x 36"

Here, the ski is dominant and the color palette is warm and complementary.  It captures the feel of fall and the land spread out before us to the horizon.

New Brunswick Farm House, Two Ways

This small oil painting of New Brunswick shows a farm house across a large field.  

"Fall Farm"

8" x 10" - oil

Completed awhile ago, it was a study for a larger painting.  And here is the larger acrylic painting I made after the study in oil.  The horizon line has been lowered to show the glorious sky which felt as if it went on forever.  I think that makes the painting feel more expansive and free....

"New Brunswick Farm House"

acrylic - 30" x 36"

The color palette is different too--warmer and more complementary.  Each of these paintings is a view of the same place yet each of them is different in content and in feel.  This is intentional on my part.  On any give day each of us is a different person.  On any given day, as an artist I hopefully have something different to say.