Mom's Tea

For this investigation I wanted to combine a very literal element with a more abstract technique.  Recently I have been pushing myself outside realism, experimenting with colors, and mixing colors. 

I used my moms homemade tea blend with watercolor to experiment with colors I associate with my mom. This was also a very emotional painting process as I tried to be mindful of the feelings coming up on reflecting about my mom and using them to translate into shapes and colors.

I started by brewing my tea and letting it steep for a good long while for a darker pigment. After that I began to just pour it onto my paper, letting the water have some compositional agency. I used the shapes from the pour as the baseline for my painting began accentuating them with paint.