Art//Tea Paintings by Emma Forrester

Tea tempers the spirit and harmonizes the mind,
dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue;
awakens thought and prevents drowsiness.

Lu Yu (733 – 804)

It’s always time for tea

Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898)

For over 1000 years, tea has been drunk for medicinal, restorative, and recreational reasons. As the drinking of tea came to be associated with cultivation and refinement, the tea ware used became as almost as important as the tea itself, from the purple clay pots of the Jiangsu province to the decorated porcelains of Wedgewood and Doulton

In this collection of works, Emma Forrester indulges her love of ceramics and pottery, in this exploration of organic and crafted beauty. These ten pieces, all drawing on the theme of tea, show Forrester’s dramatic flair, with floral patterns and arrangements flowing in to each other,

Emma Forrester graduated in 1993 with a degree in Fine Art from Liverpool University. She has worked as a scenic artist for many West-End theatres, and Royal Opera House productions. Her recent works bear an expressive use of line to portray everyday objects such as vases and tea-cups

“My aim is to show my appreciation of the simple beauty of such objects by their sensitive portrayal in my paintings. My aim is not to 'copy' the object in paint, but rather to describe and celebrate what I see”

Born in Stoke-on-Trent, the home of the British pottery industry, she and her family have a life-long appreciation of ceramics. The celebration of this great British tradition is hopefully apparent in this recent body of works