I was visiting a webdesign client that owned a coffee machine business and offhandedly mentioned it would be cool to create a painting using coffee grounds and brewed coffee. I don’t know if thought I was kidding, as I don’t think I’d ever mentioned that I also paint to him before, but he was game to see what I could do and supplied me with fresh ground coffee. I spent some time dissolving and brewing coffee trying a range of dilutions that worked well with acrylic paint and lots of water washes until I found a mix that I could apply like watercolour and build up in layers, supplementing it with thick acrylic when it needed more body. The client loved the end result, hanging it in his office, so I consider that a thumbs up. The subject itself was mostly inspired by a photograph of beans I found online, the source I’m not sure of, but if you happen to recognise the work of the original photographer please let me know and I will credit them here.
On a related note, this painting smelled AMAZING! Even days after completion, and with layers of gloss varnish applied, the smell of coffee was still strong. I don’t think it would have lasted much longer, but the initial impact was very suprising.
Coffee and acrylic on 20x30in stretched canvas.