These fish were one of the first coffee paintings I ever did. I no longer remember exactly how it all began. I have always had a particular interest in sepia photography and it occurred to me that perhaps with coffee tones could emulate that style. After my first couple tries I realized that while producing interesting colors, the coffee I had was unable to produce any dark browns. I get some dark roast coffee out of my cupboard and ran it through the machine twice. Suddenly I was able to good a much wider range of contrast.
After I produced a couple of coffee paintings, it quickly became apparent that this was the kind of art people wanted to see. I received overwhelming responses on my Instagram page (@joel_artaccount shameless plug) and had over 4000 followers a couple weeks after I began posting coffee paintings. For some reason however, after producing around 10 coffee paintings I seemed to lose my desire to create coffee paintings and became fascinated with learning how to use watercolors instead.
I will do another post later of some of my other coffee paintings. In the next couple weeks I am hoping to sit down with a couple cups of coffee and try again to see if inspiration strikes me.
Joel
Joel Lanus Art Blog 