Teapots

I love my collection of antique teapots so I decided to start painting them.…

Exploration of Recurring motif

Teapot: represents hospitality & togetherness -

Interesting juxtaposition when this symbol appears in images that depict aloneness (i.e. Tea Party for 1)

Rearranging compositional hierarchy of subject/ object relationships in traditional modalities (self-portrait, still life, landscape) to shift/make meaning:

i. Self Portrait: exploration of the self through connection with the self

ii. Self Portrait as Still Life: disassociation, where the self portrait becomes an object in the background (En-soi/ re: Sartre Being and Nothingness)

iii. (Pour-soi) Because painting can only capture the self for one ephemeral moment in time, accepting that the mutable self can never really be understood is the deepest understanding of self.

Teapot series merges portraiture, still life, and figurative traditions, mixing subject and object, foreground and background. Working in oil over an acrylic base on wood panels or paper, figures and objects are arranged to create shifting points of focus, i.e. subjects that shift into the background rather than taking centre stage.

Each painting features a recurring teapot motif, sometimes set within a backdrop of self-portraits, other times floating in front of colourful, obscured figures. The familiar domestic object becomes an anchor and a distraction, prompting reflection on visibility, attention, and the impulse to subvert the gaze.

Through this inversion of compositional hierarchy, the relationship between figure and object is explored, using the teapot as a reflective surface that both mirrors and diverts the viewer’s gaze.