Egg tempera on panel, 27 x 21 cm, September 2025
Not long ago I was invited to meet other Stewards and the team from the AGBI – The Artists General Benevolent institution. In case you don’t know, the team works to make sure artists who fall on hard times, who meet certain criteria, get assistance. We shared tea and cakes as well as learned about the organisation and thought about ways we can help to raise money for them.
Not only were the tea and cakes delicious, but the team had also made a sumptuous table arrangement, which included some figurines, including Jemima Puddle Duck! I took photos, thinking I might use something on the table from the day in a painting in the future.
Wouldn’t you know it… at the next car boot sale there she was – my own Jemima! She cost 50P. So perhaps it was trying to say something about that tea, my love of tea and a tea dance I once went to in Maine at the Asticou Inn (with some really special family friends), that made me change things drastically as I painted until I ended up with this.
‘I like a nice cup of tea in the morning,
For to start the day you see
And at half-past eleven well my idea of heaven
is a nice cup of tea.’ - Gracie Fields
Welcome to the tea dance
Old debutants getting up on their toes
Darjeeling and romance
Between potted plants and yesterday’s gigalos
In the tea rooms the men and women of royalty
Dancing from dusk till dawn – Philip Jeays
Egg tempera on panel, 27 x 21 cm, September 2025
Not long ago I was invited to meet other Stewards and the team from the AGBI – The Artists General Benevolent institution. In case you don’t know, the team works to make sure artists who fall on hard times, who meet certain criteria, get assistance. We shared tea and cakes as well as learned about the organisation and thought about ways we can help to raise money for them.
Not only were the tea and cakes delicious, but the team had also made a sumptuous table arrangement, which included some figurines, including Jemima Puddle Duck! I took photos, thinking I might use something on the table from the day in a painting in the future.
Wouldn’t you know it… at the next car boot sale there she was – my own Jemima! She cost 50P. So perhaps it was trying to say something about that tea, my love of tea and a tea dance I once went to in Maine at the Asticou Inn (with some really special family friends), that made me change things drastically as I painted until I ended up with this.
‘I like a nice cup of tea in the morning,
For to start the day you see
And at half-past eleven well my idea of heaven
is a nice cup of tea.’ - Gracie Fields
Welcome to the tea dance
Old debutants getting up on their toes
Darjeeling and romance
Between potted plants and yesterday’s gigalos
In the tea rooms the men and women of royalty
Dancing from dusk till dawn – Philip Jeays
