Real Coffee Paintings

Coffee art is a truly unique art form. It requires an extremely delicate touch. Capturing the depth of my images is only possible through a slow and sophisticated process of building layers upon layers of coffee.

I read in an art history book that in the old days the Chinese used tea and coffee to help create a brown background in their paintings. I tried to paint the whole painting with tea, but did not get pictures that I felt satisfied with. Tea can not be used to give you clear lines or create the depth-of-field in the painting. I experimented with coffee and, could create paintings that I felt satisfied with.

The technique takes a while to master, but once you know the process it allows you to create innovative creations. All you need is strong coffee mixed with water, a brush and watercolor paper. If too much coffee I used, the texture will be too elastic to paint with and cause unwanted flakes on the paper. If the coffee does not dry easily it can peel off from the paper or become molded. After extensive experimentation, I have found out that instant coffee bonds well to the watercolor paper.

I first sketch out an idea, then start brewing a really strong cup of instant coffee that is really dark and thick. I start with two small bowls of liquid coffee, one a watery consistency like a wash, and the other a much thicker consistency. Liquid coffee produces many shades of sepia. If the water evaporates from the liquid coffee over night, all you have to do is add a little water and stir to bring back your medium. If you don't like the results you obtain you can rinse your brush and then lift the coffee off your paper with your brush and a little clean water lifts off very easily. Highlights are handled the same way, by using a clean brush and a little water to remove the coffee . You can get really dark colors by using a coffee paste consistency. This will leave a shiny area where it is really dark. When you are finished with your painting, you need to spray it with a couple of thin coats of "Damar Varnish".

Coffee adds on a lot of inspiration, freshness, creation and mood. The pigment amazingly lends itself to be a perfect but unique art medium. My coffee paintings are made of 100 percent pure coffee. Painting in coffee is a refreshing break from our color pencils, water colors, and other mediums. Coffee is a fascinating medium to form art. It is all about using pure coffee, water, your brush and imagination.

The Love of Color Pencils

I have a passion for colored pencils because it creates luminous color and sensitive line when blended correctly. The pigments can be layered for wonderful effects, instead of being limited to line only. I also like the process of laying down beautiful color on great paper or illustration board. I develop the process tonally in nearly solid areas of color, the paper's texture plays a big part in how the final surface of the artwork will appear. The interplay between pencil and paper is very captivating. This medium is very forgiving. It's possible to work and rework areas without the result of looking overworked.

I layer the pencils, stroke by stroke, and the building of new hues, geometrical patterns and forms in this way allows me to see what I'm doing with contiguity.

The process requires working slowly, using up to a dozen or more layers of pencil color, constantly overlapping and manipulating the surface. These techniques permit me to generate vibrant and engaging color.

Grahite Pencil Renderings

Drawing is a quiet and thoughtful reflection of the world. Drawing is an expressive way to show your visions to the world. A well done drawing tells your story without saying a word.

I work in shades of gray. The light and shadow of the gray scale are the foundations beneath the world. Drawing with graphite feels like sculpting with light and shadow and developing an array of value scales to create depth, texture and volume.

I draw light and dark shadows and develop them smoothly. I gently manipulate the graphite in ways that fill in the grain of the paper over the surface of the drawing and not just in the areas that I would blend to create a graduated effect. When I draw a layer of graphite with a pencil, it sticks on the high surfaces of the grain and skips over the low areas. I use several techniques to fill in all the tiny parts of the paper that are missed and the result is a look that appears like the graphite has been applied in soft washes. The eraser is a magical tool. It helps me pull out the lighter shades and when I create wispy strocks it sculpts the texture. When I work with value scales in this smooth way, it feels as though I'm establishing a three dimensional environment in the paper.

These images are examples of my graphite pencil techniques.

These are a few examples of my artwork

I love to create innovative and thought provoking images. My art work is a variety of mediums, techniques, styles and subjects. I create realism, renderings, abstract, contemporary, modern, and conceptual pieces. I use materials such as; watercolors, acrylic, graphite pencil, clorox bleach, markers, color pencils, real coffee, pen and ink. I do different techiques such as; cross hatching, pointillism, and clorox bleach washes.

Subjects include: Portraiture, Fantasy, Religious Icons, Animals, Landscape, Flowers, Nature, and Still Life.

I believe that an artist transfers some of his or her life energy as well as some element of emotion into a painting. To me, art is a synthesis of my personal feelings, the subject and colors that inspire me and my materials and techniques. I work until the drawing or painting starts to breathe and tells a story. I feel alive when I create a work of art.

Artistic Expressions

My art reflects the complexity of flowing emotions, hints and glimpses of images and ideas, urges, prompting, the deep need to create from the soul. I try to convey the full dimension of life on earth, humanity's relations with itself, with nature, with God, as their personal needs and interests dictate.

Everyday, I have the need to go to my easel to assuage the inner force within demanding that I act, demanding its release, developing my expressive vision. When I draw or paint it flows smoothly, fluently, irresistibly, vibrantly to its conclusion. The creative process seems as inevitable as forces of nature (which they are), a souring eagle riding through the high wind, the sun's intensity of hue, a torrential downpour, the flowers in spring pushing their way through the warming earth to reach the intense light.

I feel incomplete without the intimate relationship with the beauty of nature and life that the creation of art implies. Art is a blend of thoughts and emotions from the heart and soul. Creativity is what happens when the raw material of reality is filtered through a consciousness and transformed into a significant artistic vision.

The greatest fear that I have is not of failure or success, but looking back and seeing that I never really tried. I never pushed the limits of my artistic abilities, feelings, emotions and perceptions. The challenge is to develop and evolve a significant vision that expresses both my feelings and those of my era in the context of timeless human experience. Then, the biggest task is getting it out in the world, trying to make gallery people and collectors understand what has been achieved.

I work with several different types of mediums: watercolors, graphite pencils, clorox bleach washes, acrylic, oils and color pencils. The subjects vary from Religous Icons, fantasy, portraits, nature and contempory modern images.