Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Java Jump-Start

Introducing the latest Oddment series (with a nod to Philip Pullman): Her Odd Materials.

I've been itching to get away from the computer, & I'm a pack rat with collections of all sorts of curious bits & pieces. So I've decided that the next few Oddments will be creatures created with unusual media, or on unusual substrates, or both.

It seems appropriate (for a caffeine junkie like me anyway) to start any new project with a nice cup of coffee. And so I decided to inaugurate this series with a painting using coffee as medium.

Coffee, pencil & gouache on found paper, ~3"x4"

Details: I boiled down some coffee so that it would be dark enough for the darks, used normal-strength coffee for the palest tones, & white gouache for highlights. The background paper is from a Workman's Weekly Time Book (pocket sized). Not sure of the actual publication date, but the entries are from 1929-30.

Warning: Boiled coffee smells utterly vile, & the reek ruins the flavor of any good coffee one happens to be drinking!


6 comments:

  1. Okay, how much do I love this? It may have to do with the fact that I'm a bit of a coffee addict, myself. And I love that you're painting on ephemera...delicious! I may survive the ending of the alphabet after all...

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  2. Brilliant. What a great idea. Why didn't I think of this??

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  3. Lovely creature, which is active only in the night ( big eyes). I like that idea to use coffee as paint = for many of us "antisleep fluid".

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  4. Thank you all! I'm already over my post-curiotype depression & having fun thinking up what to do next! :-D

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  5. your artworks are amazingly and oddly beautiful!

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