Hampshire Artist’s tea bag paintings pay tribute to fallen soldiers

An artist has commemorated Remembrance Day by painting poppies and soldiers on to used tea bags to honour those who “sacrificed their lives so we can live freely today”.

Caroline West, 50, from Waterlooville, Hampshire, has been painting on used tea bags since August 2023.

She wanted to mark Remembrance Day – which occurs annually on November 11 to honour Britain’s war dead – in a unique way through creating seven tea bags with objects and symbols synonymous with the battlefield.

Talking through some of the tea bags, Mrs West told the PA news agency: “I’ve got one just of a lone soldier walking through a poppy field that I’ve done just to signify the loneliness and desolation (soldiers) must have felt.

“I have the Lancaster Bomber, I’ve done a ship, I’ve painted a poppy on its own, just different things I felt represented (Remembrance Day) and will mean different things to different people.

“The poppy in the graveyard was a lot more intricate and I found that quite emotional to paint – the representation of all the crosses in that makes you realise how many people sacrificed their lives so we can live freely today.”

Other tea bag paintings include a rifle and cross on a field and a soldier walking towards a church.

Mrs West’s grandfather Ronald Jackman, who was a former company quartermaster sergeant in the Royal Army Service Corps, was a major inspiration for the series.

Mr Jackman, who died in July 1978 aged 65 following a short illness, was a prisoner of war during the Second World War and had a love for art like his granddaughter.

“On a personal level, my grandfather was a prisoner of war – he enlisted in 1940, got sent to Singapore in January 1942 and then he was captured in the February and was a Japanese prisoner of war for three-and-a-half years,” Mrs West said.

“I only knew him for four years when I was really young so I don’t have a lot of memories of him, but obviously they’ve been kept alive through my mum.

“He was also a really amazing artist and he’s been my inspiration through my art journey and I remember when I was really young, he drew a fairy castle and he let me draw the little fairy on it and it was always one of his dreams to become an artist.

“I feel like with this series I am hopefully achieving his dream of getting art out there.”

She said that while her grandfather was a prisoner of war, he secretly created several pen drawings – something he would have faced “dire consequences” for if caught as art was often banned in Far East prisoner of war camps.

It took Mrs West several hours to paint the various scenes for her Remembrance Day series, with Yorkshire Tea bags used as the canvas – which were given by her mother as Mrs West quipped she is not the “biggest fan” of drinking a traditional cup of tea.

To make the poignant tributes, she began by drying out used tea bags, cutting them up, scraping out all the tea and ironing them flat.

The edges were then taped, the tea bags were placed on backing paper, a base layer was applied and then she used acrylic paint to create the seven different scenes.

Her tea bags have received a positive response when she has shared them across various social media platforms.

“I think people are quite fascinated by you painting on something as small and unusual as a tea bag,” she added.

“I think Remembrance Day is just something that touches everyone’s hearts.”

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