The Mad Tea Party

I guess that's what it sort of was like this afternoon as I was painting these.

My wonderful friend Danielle Romero bought me this antique silver tea set at a goodwill store (I paid her back for it) a couple months ago and it has been sitting on display in my bedroom since. As many of you know, I collect teapots. This is like the crowning jewel in my collection. The tea set came with the teapot, the pitcher, a sugar bowl, and a creamer. I would never use it because I have no idea where it has been, but I knew that I was going to paint it. This was the first time I attempted to paint it.

 This is the teapot from the set. It has all these really intricate floral details on the spout, handle and legs.

Also, it's really hard to see in these pictures, but the silver has this sort of blue-ish, patina finish to it. It's like oil and water mixing. So gorgeous!

So I decided that the teapot's first posing-session would be for a blind contour. So I doodled away, not looking down at my paper and I was pleasantly surprised to find something cool.

Of course it didn't have the paint on it then, but I was so pleased! Then I added the paint. I was trying to capture the surface of  the silver. It was tougher than I thought it would be, but I think I captured it well. There is this really strong cobalt blue glow that the silver gives off. At first I thought it was the light from my bedroom and window, but it was the patina on the silver. It's really magical. And some parts of the silver have a rusty color to them, while others are deep purple, almost black! Like I said, this is the crown jewel of my teapot collection. Oh, the hidden treasures (sometimes not so hidden) at goodwill stores!

So I had so much fun painting the silver teapot that I wanted to try another blind contour of one of my other teapots.

 This one was decidedly less-successful than the other. I think because this teapot (which, by the way, is a teapot and teacup all in one) has a floral design printed on it, it was more difficult to capture it in a simplistic or abstract way. I need more practice with this type of thing, though, so it was good to paint it.

I have lots of other teapots, so I think I'm going to try doing a blind contour "portrait" of each of them. Each one is different...so I think it will make quite a series.

Also, I added some items (including prints) with the silver teapot on them to my online shop ! Please visit!