Brush of caffeine

Now, you not only smell the coffee, you value it on canvas too

It's a dharam sankat. As a caffeine junkie, it feels a bit of a waste to see sachets of coffee powder emptied onto foil-lined paper plates. But as someone who has newly discovered the meditative effects of rendering images on paper, I am curious to see how Trishna Patnaik converts my favourite beverage into paint, using it to make an impressionist landscape (in this case).
The result is fascinating — a painting that both, looks and smells good.

Trishna Patnaik gives a base tone to the composition.  Pic/Sayed Sameer Abedi

Patnaik, is a 28-year-old former marketing professional who quit the corporate world to pursue her weekend passion — art. As she meets us ahead of her Coffee Essence workshop, where she will lead participants through painting with coffee, she explains to us a medium to which she was introduced in 2011.

Chinese painters creating art with tea, would use coffee when creating dark brown backgrounds. But what when you are using coffee exclusively? “More powder, less water for a darker sky,” she says, dabbing a wet brush onto the powder and making a tree trunk onto a cartridge sheet. “Any coffee powder will do, really. However, the finer the granules, the better,” Patnaik says, making me wonder how a filter coffee painting will stand against an instant coffee one. And, if a rich Italian flavour will work any better.

Coffee, she says, works just like water colour on paper. “You can make your images more definitive if you choose to. I give the workshop participants a free hand in creating what they wish,” the Andheri resident adds, using a medium tone to create the first layer. Beginners, she says, would be better off using paper, graduating to canvas once they are more comfortable. “The good thing about coffee,” she says, as she looks at the tree, bushes, leaves and leaf-laden path she has just created, “is that it’s a forgiving medium. You can always come back and rectify your mistakes.”

When: Oct 11, 11 am – 12 pm
Where: 50-A, Huma Mansion, next to Ahmed Bakery, Chuim Village Road, off Union Park, Khar West
Entry: Rs 500
Call: 9867982075

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