Coffee Painting and Pencil Drawing

October 18, 2014 by

It’s becoming clear to me that I can’t stray too far from Painting with Coffee. Mixing strong black coffee with classic pencil drawing is a perfect new mix for me — I love coffee, I love painting and I love drawing. My art supplies are minimal and never far away from a creative urge.

For a little over one month I have committed to an exercise plan of drawing nothing but hammers every day. Luckily I have a special attraction to the way hammers look. They have a certain personality and are very easy to locate when I’m ready to draw. Just about every household has a hammer.

Ball Peen Hammer Painted with coffee

Ball Peen Hammer

Hammers drawn on watercolor paper make coffee painting irresistible. Now I’m working on a series of coffee paintings of hammers.

Coffee is not a new painting medium — I have been told that Victor Hugo painted with coffee. Here’s a link to other Coffee Painters. And here’s a link to my Coffee Shop.

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How to grow money on trees

September 15, 2014 by
Dance

Dance

Money grows on trees

Still trying to give myself permission to not work a Real Job for a few months and see if that openness a wider creative flow, stream river. What ever.. It’s hard for me to leave the money out of it mostly because I have spent so many years being ruled by the fear of not having enough to even meet my basics – which I have narrowed down to a pretty slim budget. Now I say Leave the money out of the equation – a least for a few months. I’ve tried to say this before but this time it’s a little more realistic – at least for a few months.

Recently I’ve been making collages and mobiles from fallen autumn leaves. The leaves are already dry and are “free of charge” therefore there is very little cost involved in making these little works of are. After the leaves are pressed in heavy books they do need to be preserved with a coat of ModgePodge which also enhances their natural color. I have started with a series of mobiles with “Words for Thought” hand printed on them with a rubber stamp. I call them Thought-Full Words.

Listen

Listen

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An Inside Job

August 26, 2014 by

The Force Factor | Releasing Creative Blocks
Getting back to painting feels like a long and winding road back to somewhere left behind long ago. A search for where I left off. I will most likely find Been There Done That if I get to the place before I quit, stopped myself, got lazy or whatever it is that I do when give-up. This time around maybe I will allow myself to continue and see what happens next – maybe it won’t even be painting this time. Whenever I feel the need to define myself as Real Artist I seem to require my final proof to be painting. I don’t know why painting has to be my point of reference for my own creative validity but I can’t seem to get around it.

Penguins living in my imagination.

Penguins living in my imagination.

In the past few weeks some paintings I did as long a thirty years ago have been returned to me. It’s been eerie and eye-opening to see them. They are mostly made-up landscapes and were all painted with the intent to look like a specific object or place even if it was just a place in my imagination. Do I want to do that again?

Here’s a running dialogue I recently had with myself in an attempt to bring some clarity to my “Why do I still want to paint?” question. I caught myself saying “I want to paint even more than I know what it is that I want to paint.” What’s that suppose to mean? I think I just want to paint again just for the joy of painting. Am I longing for the Process?  I think so and that’s good news. The process will be an opening or a path rather than creating an already pictured image. Painting won’t be limited to a picture of something already in my imagination. It seems scary to start painting something I can’t even see. Fear quickly shows up when  I seriously ask myself if I think I can still paint at all. Do I have the nerve to let painting be a vehicle into the Unknown. Take chances. Risk.  Maybe this will force me to express myself in some other way if I find that I can’t paint anymore.

“My advice is to paint the best way you can as much as you can, without being afraid to paint bad pictures, if your painting does not improve on it’s own, then there is nothing that can be done.” Monet

I just came across this quote from Monet that I had been saving for some reason. The point is to just get on with it…

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Coffee Money

July 30, 2014 by

I’m searching for new “Surfaces” for Coffee Art— trying to keep money in the equation while I explore and experiment. Why is pricing art work so difficult? It’s always been to easy for me to just give my paintings away rather than come up with some kind of price. I came upon an unexpected Aha moment with the discovery of coffee merging with $100 bills. That’s just about a close as I can come to seeing money in my art. The fabric of the $100 bills is not a absorbent as watercolor paper for coffee painting but the price couldn’t be more obvious. It feels good to comfortably say “The minimum price for this piece of art is $100.” There are probably some legal issues involved in “defacing” money but I like to think the bills are being enhanced as they becomes works of art and not “just money” At least in this case I most likely won’t just give them away —  or, maybe I will.

Before and After. Coffee painted on money and pressed maple leaves.

Before and After. Coffee painted on money and pressed Japanese Maple leaves.

 

Plus, the more I look at Ben Franklin the more he is beginning to look like my new “Mr. Right” He seems to be soaking up the coffee just fine. He’ll have to move over when Christmas comes around because my all time Number one Mr. Right is Santa Claus.

Now I’m moving on to dried, pressed leaves,  my next coffee surface.

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