We’ve done several stories of artists painting with mediums like wine and coffee. Coffee paintings in particular, convey the rich brown tones associated with the beverage, which leads to the creation of unique, very beautiful images. So brew yourself a cup of your favorite coffee and join us as we take you through the works of some world-famous coffee painters.
Coffee Art
Angel Sarkela-Saur and Andrew Saur, together call themselves the Coffee Artists. For over a decade, they have been painting with coffee and have managed to develop a unique technique of layering coffee on the canvas . Their works include paintings of ordinary, everyday objects, portrayed in the rich hues of the coffee bean. Interestingly, a lot of their paintings have coffee cups, pots and beans in them. The two definitely seem to have a thing for the dark beverage.
Godfrey Caleb
Godfrey Caleb’s story is quite interesting. Just like it happens with most great discoveries, his love for painting with coffee was discovered by accident. He just happened to spill some coffee on card paper and returned to it a while later. While talking on the phone, he absent-mindedly doodled on the dried up coffee paper, and was quite impressed with the results. Soon, the retired architect began to make beautiful paintings landscapes and also portraits with coffee. He says he loves to drink coffee while painting with it, so invariably the brush is sometimes dipped in the wrong mug.
Karen Eland
Karen was featured here on OC a few years ago. The talented painter from Tulsa only uses espresso and her art involves recreating some of the most famous paintings in history such as The Last Supper and Starry Night. Thanks to her art, she has been a TV and internet celebrity for a while now. Karen Eland found her passion by accident too, one day when she was painting with regular paints at a coffee shop.
Hong Yi
Hong Yi’s coffee paintings depart from the conventional forms of art. Her paintings are unique in the sense that the only tools she uses are coffee and a mug. Would you have ever thought that those nasty rings of coffee that mugs leave on the table could ever create beautiful works of art? Hong Yi has done just that, her stunning paintings are made by smudging together Nescafe coffee stains from the bottom of a cup. Her most popular work is the 3ft by 5.5 ft portrait of Taiwanese song-writer Jay Chou.
Sunshine Plata
The Filipino artist makes use of instant coffee to painstakingly create paintings of rural landscapes and whimsical scenes. Her paintings stand apart from the rest because the canvas she uses makes sure that the aroma of the coffee isn’t lost either. Her technique is to mix different quantities of coffee powder in water, in order to achieve various shades of brown. Interestingly, she started painting with coffee because it was cheaper than regular paint. Sunshine Plata does admit that even though she loves painting with coffee, her preferred beverage is actually tea.
Steven Mikel
Steven Mikel is a former chef and currently a part-time painter from Florida. He also works with computers and graphic design. This versatile artist had been dabbling with coffee art for a while before he decided to take it more seriously. His passion for the medium developed because he didn’t like to waste leftover coffee. Steven makes various coffee mixtures and reductions to produce different hues, but he won’t hesitate to even dip into the cup that he’s drinking from, for the sake of art.
