I am a mucky watercolour painter. I am also a procrastinator, so sometimes I see disaster as a lovely excuse for a tidy-up.  Yesterday afternoon I discovered something messy had occurred in my watercolour storage box. Despite needing to get on with a painting I set about resolving my disaster. Meanwhile, outside, my home city of Plymouth was dealing with a much more serious potential disaster.

BBC News – Plymouth WW2 bomb found in a garden, detonated at sea. Read link below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-68385962

The outdoor potential disaster had given me a few daylight hours to start a new painting. All waterfront areas were closed to the public, and many local roads. No trains, busses or ferries. The perfect excuse.

Paints all tidied up. My models were arranged.

And I began the painstaking task of painting and printing a cup of mint tea resting on a bistro table, standing on a tiled floor.

I think there is a delicious irony in painting a cup of calming mint tea; while not 500 yards from my home a bomb weighing over 1,000 pounds or 500kg is being towed out to sea.

Daylight failed me, eventually and I have not managed to finish. Just the dregs of the tea have been painted into the cup. Two disasters resolved successfully.

One day later and the job is done.