Day 72: Teaism

“Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.”
-Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea
Not that this comment is what goes through my head while I'm sipping my morning cup of tea, but it's beautifully written.

Day 71: Let it go, move on.

It’s one of those mornings when a travel memory alights inside my head. This one was playing, or rather watching a fabulous group of smart Chinese business boys play a dice game, surrounded by beautiful women, drinking the finest whiskey and sipping the most delicious champagne. The thoughtful and careful service in this small private room at a nightclub in Beijing earlier this year was entertainment in itself. And there I was drinking champagne and laughing along with the fun of this drinking game.

But back to the art work, as I started drawing dice they looked more like pieces of toast and when the dots were added, the toast turned to cushions. Sometimes a drawing doesn’t turn out the way you intended it to be. At that point I normally accept what it is, turn the page and move on.

Day 70: Quiet contemplation

This morning it’s about my darling sweetheart; he’s travelling again. I shall make each stroke of the pen count, like every moment I have in this life.

“Who would then deny that when I am sipping tea in my tearoom I am swallowing the whole universe with it and that this very moment of my lifting the bowl to my lips is eternity itself transcending time and space?”
― D.T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture

Day 69: Tealicious

Drawing is about the mind feeding the hand and the hand feeding the mind. Drinking tea is just the cherry on the top.

Day 68: a heightened sense of curiosity

Yet another plus for being part of the 100 Days Project.

Lovely morning cuppa in the heat of Singapore. Tea is wonderful to drink in the extremes of climate. It will warm the heart during the coldest winter and will cool the soul in the height of summer heat.

Day 67: a winning team & a willing mind

As Bruce read out the news about the All Blacks v Ireland game I started drawing my cuppa. Interesting how the mind works, as I had no intention to draw anything that resembled a rugby match.

Day 66: Good morning Melaka

Day 65: A roll of the dice

That’s what it feels like when I’m travelling as to what form my morning cup of tea will take. This morning I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and for the first time my tea is on tap.

I’m here to see my partner’s dad, who is one of the WWll veterans of Bomber command travelling to London for the unveiling of a monument to commemorate New Zealanders who lost their lives during raids over Nazi occupied Europe. Only one in five made it back from these raids; another roll of the dice for each man every time he flew out as to whether he'd make it back alive.

Day 64: When tea becomes a ritual

“When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?”

― Muriel Barbery; ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’. This is a book I could read again and I enjoyed it so much I refuse to see the movie.

Day 63: I love books; the paper kind.

Book cover design done...all I need to do now is write the content.

However it’s been suggested that I should bound my daily fixes into a small book. This idea has great possibilities and I’d say a lot easier than writing an ‘International No.1 Bestseller’.

Day 62: How to make a great cup of tea

Do not rush
Be mindful
Stir with love

Day 61: For the love of speed

Perhaps speed drawing will satisfy my love of fast cars, though in saying that I’ve never had a desire for speed on a motorbike and I’ve owned a Ducati. I am featured in Tim Chadwick’s book Motorcycles in New Zealand, while my sister is featured in his tractor book. But cars; I've totalled 3, which leaves an astonished me. I'm actually alive and reasonably undamaged. Racing is in my blood; my great uncle Nicolas raced a Buggati and my father raced horses. But speed drawing is so not like my morning cup of tea. This maybe an example of ‘opposites attract’ and in drawing a restful object with vigour, they will complement each other and create a pleasing image.

Day 60: zoom zoom

Gathering freshness with quickness
Creating liveliness with swiftness of stroke

Day 58: Dear diary

Found out today that my two weeks of yoga in southern France is just that, so no room or ability to record my daily fix. I need to think...

Day 59: ...so true

The

“EARTH”

without

“ART”

is

just

“EH”

Day 57: I see my future by stepping into it.

Holy mackerel, great fish of the ocean! Has anyone ever ventured to the mighty Google to ask about tea leaf fortune telling. I did simply because I’m sure it was my friend Lenna Maketoni’s mum who was a wiz at entertaining us as 'young adults' at the kitchen table with getting us to flip our tea cup upside down and give it a twirl on its saucer, before the leaf reading commenced. Well there are pages of inviting info on Google about interpretations of the symbols you see. I think it’s like reading clouds. Although clouds keep changing, as life does, so my vote is with a cloud reading.

Day 56: Over land, over sea

...I'm going home

I know things aren’t going too well when all there is to have my morning fix in, at the New Plymouth Airport Koru lounge is a plastic cup. Hey, let’s put some more rubbish in the world! ! Which reminds me of the saying about leaving a better world for the next generation; I look around and say why not make more of an effort with the young so we leave a better generation for the future of world.

Day 55: What was that?

Knowledge, discipline, generosity

Day 54: Stars in my eyes

I rubbed my eyes so much this morning that all I saw was stars. That will teach me for stroking the cat before my morning cup of tea.

Day 53: up too early

And out the door too early and back too late, darkness when I left and darkness when I returned. It’s now 8pm and I need to recall my morning fix. All I can think of is that it happened too quickly...a bit like something else I shouldn’t write about.

Day 52: Rise and shine

My sister, who I'm staying with while in NZ, is a coffee drinker and like me is in a thoughtful state each morning as the day is prepared. Does anyone else get woken early morning by someone’s voice calling your name? It’s always so clear. It was my sister's voice at 6.30 this morning, but of course it was just inside my head. But I still woke up and call out; yes? only to find a silent house in darkness. I was now wide awake so headed to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, which is far too early for a Sunday morning.

Day 51: What makes the world go round?

Friends do!  This morning’s cup of tea was served in a beautiful porcelain mug made by Taranaki potter Lynn Spencer....which was coincidentally given to my host by the friend I gave the birthday card to yesterday. I certainly needed my fix before heading out for a long beach walk and then a swim in the sea which made my head hurt it was so cold.

Day 50: Half way through my life span

What better way to celebrate than to gift my drawing to someone who's having a birthday today. So I'll see you later Dianne with birthday card in one hand and bubbles in the other!

Day 49: This morning's headline

Life is wonderful; until I read the news
so I stopped reading the news
Life is wonderful

Day 48: Hey Presto

I've just looked at my blog postings and as I view my recent drawings I ask myself the question....where did these images come from? I just put pencil or pen to paper and voila, they appear. Writers must ask the same question with a poem, a novel or inventors, designers, creators of great dinner parties... Best I get on with the day and stop this day dreaming.
Day 48 drawing; thinking of tea leaves.

Day 47: consistency v free-spirited

The thing is, my morning cuppa and the Queen have consistency in common while I feed off change. I even need to drive a different way to work every morning. I become quite unsettled with too much of a muchness. ..except for my morning cuppa.
Queen Elizabeth, another morning cuppa gal, is the only ‘thing’ that doesn’t ever change. Her daily routine and sense of stability is phenomenal. Good on you. I raise my morning cuppa and salute your consistency, your unchanging values and your unmoving devotion to your job.

Special thanks to my sister for letting me draw with felt pens over her cup/teapot set xox

Day 46: Life without art is stupid

My sister titled this drawing 'High Tea', which is very popular in Singapore. I'll need to add that to my 'to do list'.

Day 45: I'm so excited

Its day 45 and I’m still having fun. Maybe it’s that fact that this project for me is about exploring ideas, returning to drawing and not making judgement on the outcome. I’m normally very critical about my paintings where their time with me is limited, ending when they are taken away by someone else to enjoy....which is fantastic!  But this project is different, my drawings are for me.

Day 44: Waiting for the big 5 0

They say the 50’s are best. Once you’ve reach Day 50 it’s all downhill, an easy run to the finish.  Is that the same with age? ...I don’t think so.

Day 43: another day in no particular country

another daily fix in a plastic cup