Life and career
Tea was born Sophie Terry [1] in Wolverhampton and raised in Birmingham [2] and Northwich, Cheshire. [3] She graduated with a business management degree from Aston University in 2016 [4] and visited India as one last trip before starting a job as a consultant in London. [2] After running low on funds, she painted a picture of a multi-coloured cow over a hostel's graffitied wall in exchange for accommodation. [4] After receiving positive feedback, she aborted her job and begun painting nudes. [2] She moved back in with her parents and set up the Yoke app linking artists with buyers and sought investment for it, but aborted that idea at the behest of an investor. [4] [5] During this period, she was hired by Jenna Meek to apply Meek's glitter paint and jewels to festivalgoers' faces and bodies. [6] While with Meek and two other women at a 2017 ski festival in the French Alps, Meek took photos of the other three topless with their chests covered in glitter; the three went viral as a result, with "glitter boobs" becoming a popular outfit choice for that year's festivalgoers. [7]
After tiring of trawling Google for naked women to paint, Tea asked her female Instagram followers to send photos of themselves nude; among the respondents were an eighty year old and people with self-harm scars, stoma bags, and stretch marks. [1] She opened galleries in London's Carnaby Street and Sydney's Manly in 2020, [1] [8] having moved to the latter by the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. [1] [9] By February 2021, her works also included paintings of multi-coloured hearts, slogans, and a homage to McDonald's fries. [1] After returning to the UK, she launched a social media series "Charity Shop Friday" in 2024, in which she visited a charity shop, bought an item, painted it, returned it for the same price, and then raffled her painting for charity. [10]