Make Way for Creative Art Forms!

NOTHING ABOUT COVID IS GOOD, EXCEPT PERHAPS THE HOBBIES AND CRAFTS THAT PEOPLE PICKED UP DURING THE LOCKDOWN AND THE SUBSEQUENT STAY-AT-HOME DAYS. THINGS WHICH THEY NEVER WOULD HAVE OTHERWISE, PERHAPS, OWING TO A LACK OF TIME AND ENERGY. WHILE ALMOST EVERY OTHER PERSON STARTED A KITCHEN/BALCONY GARDEN, TOOK IN A PET, COOKED EXOTIC DISHES AND RE-DÉCORATED THE HOUSE DURING THE ON AND OFF LOCKDOWNS, OTHERS WENT IN FOR SOMETHING LESSER-KNOWN, AND MORE CHALLENGING. HERE ARE A FEW

- Asha Prakash

Coffee art

At first glance, Clint Elias' painting of Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood would seem like a watercolour painting done in shades of brown. Well, the 'brown paint' is actually coffee, and there's nothing but coffee on the canvas!

Clint, a Kochi-based engineer, had always been interested in sketching and painting, celebrity faces being one of his favourite subjects. During the lockdown in 2021, Clint decided to pick up art one day after a break, only to find that he didn't have paint in the house. The situation wasn't conducive to go out and buy supplies either. This got Clint thinking, and he suddenly remembered coming across coffee art on the internet. He didn't know of anyone doing it in Kerala but decided to try anyway. And the results turned out to be breathtaking.

However, painting with coffee is just like painting with any other medium, according to Clint. "You use coffee powder diluted with water as paint, and your skill lies in getting the exact shades of brown." Clint's painting of Clint Eastwood was an instant hit on social media, and soon he was inundated with questions on what it was, how coffee is used for painting and more. He went on to do a few more coffee paintings, the painted face of a Theyyam artist with all intricate details, a movie poster of actor Tovino Thomas and more. Incidentally, Tovino liked the work so much that he shared it on his Instagram page.

An interesting fact about coffee paintings is that you need only one spoon of powder for an A3 -sized painting, Clint says. “But you can use only processed coffee like Nescafe, not ordinary coffee powder, which will come out grainy." Once a work is done, the coffee colours stay like any other paint, and you can frame the work if needed, he says.