ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Coffee Art | Painting With Beans

Updated on October 3, 2014

When It Comes To Coffee, There's Art In Beans!

I must be addicted to coffee as I find that, not only am I drinking it regularly, I'm eating it at any chance I get, and now I want to start painting with it! Well, not me I'm no artist, but pour yourself a cup and see what I've found lurking in the coffee art world. And this art has nothing to do with that stencil art that's shaken on top of a cappuccino, this is good old paintbrush watercolor stuff!

Whether it's a latte or cappuccino or even that luscious Irish coffee, drinking coffee has to be one of the great pleasures for many of us. It doesn't stop there, when I pour out a cup of this elixir, I find I'm stretching my hand out in the direction of something else, yes, a piece of coffee cake or coffee fudge.

I grew up on a farm in Kenya where my father grew a small acreage of coffee, and processed it himself (with plenty of help), from the picking through the husking and washing to the drying. I was unaware then, how fascinated I would later become, with this magical brown bean and its addictive properties.

I'm astounded at the artistic talent I've found of those who paint with coffee. Their methods are often unusual and quite unique as are their final works of art- one thing they all have in common is COFFEE TALENT.

DESTINY

Image credit: Karen Eland, http://coffee-art.com/

Created on 30 April 2013

The Coffee Artists

Angel Sarkela-Saur and Andrew Saur

Some while ago I came across a story about a couple, Angel Sarkela-Saur and Andrew Saur, who were painting pictures by only using coffee and nothing else. These two graphic designers have combined their artistic skills and now specialize in painting this type of unique and stylish art.

Having developed this kind of art movement jointly, they design and paint each of their paintings together as a husband and wife team. They say that it's an art form that keeps evolving, and what they enjoy the most is developing and implementing ideas jointly, right through to the final piece of artwork.

It's inevitable that by each bringing their own styles to the canvas, the final work of art has an interesting complexity and subtlety to it. To be able to produce such high quality work with anyone, let alone your loved one, is a worthy feat, but to turn it into a world class item of art is outstanding merit indeed.

Angel Sarkela-Saur and Andrew Saur

Image credit: www.justcoffeeart.com

Coffee Art Report on FOX

I'm amazed at the different hues in this image and all just produced from the dark brown coffee bean. To achieve light sepia color washes is fairly straight forward, but Angel Sarkela-Saur and Andrew Saur have created what they call, a revolutionary process to gain these rich, dark hues. There's obviously a great deal of trial and error that has gone into developing this interesting art style.

Their Coffee Art has proved popular and has received much attention worldwide. They have had exhibitions in numerous countries across Europe and the United States, as well as in Malawi in Africa.

To see how the couple painting in action visit their Coffee Art on YouTube site.

Coffee and The Fine Arts

Coffee has been the inspiration of many people in the fine arts world over the centuries, from painters to musicians. It has the power to oil the wheels of poetry and prose while casting its spell wide over such experts as caricaturists, engravers and illustrators. It's the work of these craftsmen and craftswomen over time that has given us an insight into the workings and goings-on in the coffee houses of old and generally behind the scenes of these establishments.

This coffee connection to the arts is more so to do with drinking the beverage rather than sweeping brushstrokes of it across a canvas. However, the results of attractive sepia tones left by the artists using coffee as their medium speak for themselves.

I have long been interested in art of all types and using a variety of media, but watercolors have had a special place in my tiny collection. I view coffee art in the same way as watercolor as it's applied in a similar manner only using a different color palette.

Bamboo - Painted With Coffee - by Cheryl Buehring

Cheryl Buehring studied art at the Art Instruction School of Minneapolis in Minnesota graduating in 1995. Discovering a joy of using coffee as a medium for her paintings, a style was born. To enhance colors she sometimes adds a splash of natural dyes extracted from fruit and vegetables.

Cheryl spent many years living in Hawaii and was fascinated at how bamboo used to grow and look. She created this eye catching picture using just coffee on watercolor paper.

Measurements: 4 inches x 7 inches

Available for sale at Etsy.com

An Artist Who Loves Painting With Coffee

Karen Eland

American artist, Karen Eland says that painting using coffee is fairly similar to watercolor, but is much more delicate. I expect when an artist uses just a single color to paint with, the detail has to be more refined to establish a good contrast. Like many art and design topics, if one is limited in the quantity of whatever is available to work with, then the creative juices must work a little harder to be effective with the one you've got.

In Karen's case, she enjoys the fine tuning of "coaxing out the espresso into gentle shades and layers". She's obviously in the 'coffee-zone' as her aim is to meet and paint coffee workers in action, but she'll have to take her coffee paints with her as they are already roasted. Newly picked coffee beans bear no resemblance to the dark brown bean we're all familiar with.

More of Karen's work below...and loads more on her Coffee Creations website.

Image credit: coffee-art.com

Ballet Class

Ballet Class by Karen Eland
Ballet Class by Karen Eland

Permission granted for use

Karen shows her deft subtlety when using a paintbrush in this Ballet Class painting. The detail of the cornice on the wall behind is refined and elegant while the dancers are beautifully portrayed in their typical poses.

This piece oozes warmth and a sense of being there. Karen's words on her Etsy.com site poses the question to the viewer, "can you spot the cup of coffee awaiting to energize the ballerina?"

Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide

Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry
Coffee: A Comprehensive Guide to the Bean, the Beverage, and the Industry
If you adore coffee, then you'll find this book to be the definitive guide to the diverse dimensions of the bean and also the drink from around the world. It looks into the many aspects of coffee, from its history to the growing, preparation and marketing of the product, taking into account the social and environmental issues that it faces today. They look into the effects of globalization and talk about the different types of trade branding, such as fair trade, organic and direct trade. The health of the workers and the relationship with nature and wildlife are discussed. This book traces the journey of coffee from the field to the cup and would be an essential guide for coffee lovers, students or professionals alike to one of the favorite beverages known to mankind.
 

Mona Latte

Mona Latte by Karen Eland
Mona Latte by Karen Eland

Permission granted for use

Mona Latte was Karen's very first piece of coffee art which she painted in 1997 when in a Tulsa coffee shop, in Oklahoma. She must have repainted it (probably many times) as this is a 2003 version!

"Now we know the secret of her smile- a delicious latte." Karen Eland

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Karen Eland
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Karen Eland

Permission granted for use

This delightful painting really catches the moment as the girls sparkling eyes look back at the viewer's eye while she's warming her cupped hands around the cup of.. yes, you can't get away from it,.. coffee!

Another of Karen's little quips, "Vermeer's famous muse, caught on a coffee break."

Georgeta Blanaru is a fine artist from Romania who paints in a multitude of media, but it's her coffee paintings that are extraordinary.

She seems to be able to extract a few colors unassociated with coffee, like the red of Santa Claus's jacket in some of her paintings and the subtle sepia tones in others.

More of her coffee art

Just Coffee and a Cup - by Hong Yi

You have to admire Hong Yi’s paintings with coffee, they are very different to most of the other more conventional coffee artists in that she doesn't use any brushes. How can that be? Take a look at this image to see that her only tool is a coffee mug. Most of us spend time trying to avoid leaving those nasty stains of coffee behind on the furniture, but Hong Yi does it intentionally and has created her own unique style.

This painting is made by smudging Nescafe coffee stains together from the base of a cup. It is a portrait of a Taiwanese song-writer by the name of Jay Chou measuring 3ft by 5.5 ft.

Image credit: Hong Yi

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)