Many of you have probably noticed, especially the students, how we often include tea in artworks, in both the adult and kids art classes at Sunshine Art School.
My favourite tea to use is Rooibos tea, a South African tea that has the most beautiful golden colour and sweet aroma. The tea seems to add a subtle magical touch to artworks.
I add a little boiling water to a Rooibos tea bag which creates a lovely strong golden colour. Black tea works just as well and is very similar with less golden hue to it. The tea seems to act a little like ink, and I often will add it to my watercolour artworks. Sometimes I will paint the whole watercolour paper with tea giving it a more vintage look, or I’ll add tea to some of my watercolour paints (especially synthetic pigment paint) which dulls the colour and gives a more natural vintage look.
We use Rooibos tea a lot in the kids classes. The act of boiling the kettle and having the sweet tea aroma in the room is calming and warming especially in the colder months. Many kids art materials are made with synthetic pigments so the tea softens them and creates a more natural hue.
However, there is something else that is unexplainable in why I am so drawn to using Rooibos tea so much at the art school. It’s more than just the golden colour and sweet smell. It could be the healing properties and energy that Rooibos tea gives off, or it could be my South African heritage and how I was surrounded by Rooibos tea my whole life.