Meditations on Tea: A Coloring Book to Soothe the Soul

Description

This coloring book is based off prints and artwork from many different artists. But it is hard to see what the unifying theme is for this book. The title suggests it is about tea, or associations with tea, but some of the drawings seem to have little connection. The artwork is so varied it sometimes is jarring. Part of the problem is that the book seems to be organized into sections but without any smooth transitions. At the beginning, there are many coloring pages that look like traditional wood-block prints. But as the book progresses, you start to feel the author ran out of material and just started throwing in random Japanese-style art. Then just flowers. Then patterns of teapots (British?). Then various plants and birds, and even fish, and geometric patterns. It is just confusing. You would expect a book with this title to be more focused, but even the Japanese scenes, while beautiful, sometimes have nothing to do with tea. Trying to ferret out the connection is puzzling, not soothing. Most of the drawings are quite pretty and taken independently could be relaxing, but as a whole there is a perplexing lack of coherence.