Artist uses more than 500 shots of coffee as part of charity painting challenge
The owner of a Shrewsbury coffee house challenged a local artist to create a painting like no other in the name of charity.
Daily Brews coffee shop, located in The Square, Shrewsbury, is participating in The Shrewsbury Art Trail until the end of June.
Daily Brews founder Vytis Kiuberis selected local artist Lena Jarl Churm from Shrewsbury’s Visual Art Network’ (VAN) to exhibit her contemporary watercolour paintings.
But he also had a unique request. He asked Lena to paint with coffee.
"It’s the first time I painted using coffee," said artist Lena. "The idea is great but it is quite difficult.
"Coffee and art befit each other well. One reason being, the casual enjoyment of drinking black coffee by many famous artists, but when you really think about it, making a proper cup of coffee is to some extent an art in itself. In the past, we didn’t have such an extensive variety of coffee and the tools to marry water and coffee beans as beautifully as we can today.
"Yet the past and present of coffee has something in common – it brings people together. It encourages people to chat, improves our days and helps us find inspiration.
"To paint with coffee it is best to use espresso that’s been steamed five or more times. Thicker mocha that has been steamed and prepared in a special way can work as well."
This style of painting was created in Asia, when an artist who could not afford to buy paint, decided to use coffee instead. More than 500 espresso shots were used for this project.
This non-traditional method of painting presented some challenges. As coffee is not real paint, to achieve a darker colour, you have to paint a lot of layers, Lena said.
Daily Brews is running a raffle to win some of these coffee paintings with proceeds going to Hope House.
