3 Kitchen Coffee Creations

What’s in the Kitchen?!  It turns out,  there’s a lot of products to paint and create with in my pantry.  Amazingly, I thought of over 100 different media and tools to choose from in little under 5 minutes!   Of course, this was once I put the whole archival issue aside and just focused on creative materials in the house.

What prompted this?  And Why bother?   Well,  for starters:  I’m  always hearing the very  the loud voice of “But that artist paper costs too much!  or I’m just a beginner, so I’m just getting the student paint.”

Creativity in the Kitchen

What’s a teacher to do?   Yes, thats right….Get Creative!   Things to use just for fun, just to create:   There’s lipstick, soy sauce, red wine, ( very nice Shiraz)  mulberries, tea,  turmeric,  93+ more      ….  my soy sauce trees were lovely!

So by putting on the back burner the archival issues,  how the product will perform,  how it will last – and only focus on the short term – here and now,  I can imagine all sorts of very creative and fun things to try.

How to make it more durable

Debi,  what if you create a stunning image? and its not using archival lasting materials?  Hmm. Good Question.

First,  take a really good quality photo and document the image.   Get it printed.

Second,  use acrylic satin medium front and back (if possible) to help extend the life of the art image just that little bit longer.   I wouldn’t sell it.  At least not without marking the price down  and advising the client as to what the shelf life would be (very short.)  People expect archival long lasting artwork for their money and I don’t blame them.

Artistic Creations with Coffee

My first trial was with coffee.  I first tried using my normal coffee, from my french press plunger. It wasn’t effective. I couldn’t  get a good range of tonal values.

So then I resorted to an old jar of instant coffee crystals. This worked wonderfully. I was able to get very dark tones and very pale tones, some lovely tonal ranges  by diluting with water.

I tried some on newspaper, some on computer paper,   a couple on matt board, one on rice paper, a few on watercolour cellulose paper,  a couple on good CP paper  just to see the results on a random selection of surfaces.

The other good thing I discovered about turning my mind to alternate tools, supplies,  etc.  is that it really opens the door to Creativity.  It activates the pathways of creative problem solving.  Which is great bonus for artists!

None of these are permanent, but thats ok.  Going with the  “wabi sabi”   flow  and  letting go the need to have everything  permanent is good for the soul.

What do you have in your kitchen!?