Fun Art Things To Do – Edition 1

Over the coming months I am going to share some of the quirkier art things I love to find and do. Art is my passion and I love sharing that passion with people – which is why I became an art consultant in the first place – it’s the ultimate way I can share my love of art. But you don’t have to be in the market for a new piece of artwork for your wall to enjoy art and here in this first edition of ‘Fun Art Things To Do’ I am going to share one of the quirkiest ways I have enjoyed consuming art in a while.

The Art Afternoon Tea at The Rosewood

Yup. Is this every art consultants dream?! An afternoon tea combined with art history! The Rosewood introduced its first art afternoon tea in August 2017 and the first art edition (created by Executive Pastry Chef Mark Perkins – clearly an artist in his own right) took inspiration from Picasso’s cubism, pop artist Andy Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup Can and a Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin. I’m a bit gutted we didn’t get to try these too. Not like me to miss an art trick.

Our edition was the second for the hotel (and not surprisingly voted as the Best Contemporary Afternoon Tea for the second year running) and this edition was wholly inspired by the works of Vincent Van Gogh. There are three key creations (spoiler alert – stop reading now and just book if you want to go!):

The Starry Night – this matcha sponge, strawberry miring gel, yuzu, coconut cheesecake and sable biscuit gourmandise is inspired by the famous painting of the sky view from the painters asylum room (with an imagined village to boot).

The Sunflower is next – my personal favourite to eat – lemon olive oil cake, citrus pine cremeux, Jivara chocolate mousse with a beautiful chocolate sunflower to top it off.

And last but not least was the delectable Almond Blossom offer – almond sponge, apricot peach compote, jasmine, vanilla bavarois with an almond blossom chocolate decoration. The Almond Blossom series represented awakening and hope for Van Gogh so it was a good one to finish on because by then I was hoping I could still button my jeans up.

This afternoon tea is not cheap (£60pp) but if you love art and want to have an inspired afternoon sharing your love of art with a loved one then I would definitely recommend a visit. Perhaps combine it with a visit to The Sir John Soane Museum (only a four minute walk away) – I think that could make for the perfect art day anyone could wish for. There is also a kids version in which the kids are provided with their own paints and a palette – my girls were too big but I think this may be the perfect excuse for me to return with a smaller person and eat it all over again!