In 1936 the founder of Betty's travelled on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary ocean liner. He was so enthralled by the splendour of the ship that he commissioned the Queen Mary’s designers and craftsmen to turn a dilapidated furniture store into an elegant cafe in the land-locked location of St Helen’s Square. Today, as you sit in Betty's surrounded by huge curved windows, elegant wood panelling and ornate mirrors, you can almost imagine yourself aboard a luxury liner.
The art deco elegance of the Queen Mary is particularly evident in the first floor Belmont Room which was inspired by one of the cruise liner’s state rooms.
Now my daughter has lived in York for some years and I have never yet been able to get a seat in 'Betty's' usually the queue goes out the door and down the street. 50, 60, 70 people all queueing for tea in this famous tearoom. I love tea... and I love tearooms but it seemed I was never destined to experience the wonders of 'Betty's'.....but....
On Sunday at 9.45 I passed the door... no queue!!!! My goodness I thought!!! Inside I could see most of the tables were full. Right I thought, now is my chance!
Well straight in, no queue and a window seat! Inside a pianist was' playing over the rainbow' This really was Art deco decadence... I ordered some beautiful rose petal Chinese tea and a breakfast of Yorkshire pancakes layered with stewed rhubarb and strawberries. Heaven!! A little work of Art :)
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| My breakfast fruity pancake |
This brings me to This weeks Apr challenge 'fruit' I love fruit, although I do prefer cooked fruit. Cooked fruit is not to easy to draw so I thought I'd collage a apple design.
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| Collaged Apples |
I layered the design onto some watercolour paper, building up layers.
I then added some pen and conte crayon highlights.
And finally as an added little highlight all of its own how about this fruity character?
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| the fat rascal |
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| the fat rascal window |
The Famous 'Betty's 'Fat Rascal' bun. I found a brilliant recipe click here if you fancy making them, very indulgent as they contain lots of butter and lots of cream, but very very moreish.
Links to Artists playroom
Sounds like quite a decadent breakfast! Always more enjoyable when it happens by chance. I hope you pretended you were on the Queen Mary and were going to meet Lord Lahdidah for a stroll around the deck after breakfast.
ReplyDeleteYour artwork for APR is luscious - colours, design and the layers of texture. I love the way you have abstracted the apples.
Still struggling to find time to finish mine, but it will come together soon ( I hope).
Betty's Tearoom in York is heavenly and I often think fondly of my last visit to UK when I met a childhood friend there for lunch. My favourite is Welsh Rabbit followed by any one of their delicious cakes. I only hope there is a Betty's in Heaven!
ReplyDeleteOoops, I forgot to comment on your super collage. I love how you brought out the apples among the wonderful background.
ReplyDeleteLove those apples! The red really pops and they look like they're happily rolling around on the page. The pancakes look decadent. I'll take anything with rhubarb!!
ReplyDeletehow decadent mum! wow, so jealous. Maybe next time we go we should get out early so I can experience Bettys :p those fat rascals look interesting! definitely something to make:) xxx
ReplyDeleteYour collage is fantastic, That apple pancake looks very yummy, think I will take a look at those fat rascals.
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love this collage! So excellent! The breakfast and the pictures are wonderful and it all sounds relaxing and delicious!
ReplyDeleteYour fruit collage is amazing, I love how you've done it, fabulous layers!
ReplyDeleteloving this and the story just brought me the biggest smile!! somewhere over the rainbow is my all-time hands-down forever favourite song and I had [though seem to have lost] a grand playlist of about 35 different versions.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to visit Betty's and your collage is extraordinarily delicious.
xoxo