I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  I was invited to the Middle East Coffee&Tea Convention, to share my art and paint some prizes for the barista championship. Here I am lugging my tradeshow booth stuff past the world’s tallest building.

Dubai is a city of skyscrapers, impossible but real islands shaped like palm trees, indoor ski resorts, deserts, horse and camel races, excellent food and more giant malls than any place needs. Here are some highlights: Continue reading…

Here’s the newest painting, soon to be viewable in one of those cool, speedy start-to-finish painting videos.  I bet you could guess that the original artist is Picasso!

Here’s a peek at that original, and the coffee twist…

Vintage Beer Poster

Beer Nouveau

San Diego Beer Fair, here I come!  On September 24th, I’ll be painting live on behalf of Arts ‘n Drafts, Continue reading…

Here is my latest coffee painting, “Destiny”, originally by Waterhouse.  I’ve also painted 2 others by him, “Ophelia’s Last Sip” and “Lady of Chocolat”.  “Destiny” is his title but doesn’t seem very coffee-art-ish.  Suggestions?

I often get asked to do portraits from photographs and never see the people in ‘real life’. Recently, I got to meet this couple in person when they picked up their completed portrait. It was fun to see how the kindness I saw in their eyes while painting them was truly present when we met.

Please email me at coffeepainter@gmail.com if you would like to commission something.  It’s not too early to plan for the holidays!

The Fort George Brewery in Astoria, OR  gave me the pleasure of painting a chalkboard in their tasting room last week.  Astoria is a town of hard-working guys, with lots of fishing and logging.  I worked from a historical photo of loggers in a huge tree (sniff sniff, goodbye lovely tree!) and here they are enjoying beer from the Fort George.

This was part of the Beer Art show on display during August, and here are some paintings I created using their Working Girl Porter and Cavatica Stout as my paint.  If you’re near Astoria on a weekend, stop by the Fort George for some tasty food, beverages, and art!

The Lager Loggers

Bieres de la George, scenes of Astoria and the Brewery inset

Beer Nouveau

Fort George Logo

I’ve spent most of last year working in my studio instead of out and about in coffeeshops. Recently I discovered the charming shop called Coffee Girl. It’s on a pier overlooking the mighty Columbia River in Astoria. Here’s what I saw as I worked on some new paintings…

Continue reading…

Here’s what Guinness looks like on paper, along with some interesting facts I discovered about one of the world’s most famous brews:

Arthur Guinness first brewed beer in 1759, and there was almost no advertising until the 1930′s.  Despite that, the company had become one of Great Britain’s top three breweries.  But finally the ads did come, and among the most familiar is:

Dorothy L. Sayers, mystery writer and friend of C.S. Lewis, actually sketched the Toucan and worked on the ad campaigns.  I like her books and had no idea she was connected to Guinness!

People often ask if I paint using mediums other than coffee.  Yes, though not as often.  I started out as a colored pencil and watercolor artist, then got into oils a bit.  About 3 years into my coffeepainting journey, an interior decorator hired me to paint oils for an Oklahoma restaurant called Rib Crib.  The subject matter was quite different from my usual classic masterpieces- this time it was cowboys and old west themes.  We quite a few of these restaurants together throughout the Southwest, and now it looks like we’re at it again.  This job has to be done in 2 weeks!  Here’s a bad phone-pic of yesterday’s work.

This store will be in McAlester, OK.  The founder of the town, J.J. McAlester, is one of the characters in True Grit, interestingly.  Now the town is where the state prison is, and they have a prison rodeo!  So one picture shows that, and we’ll have a train scene, and J.J.’s old storefront.  Yeehaw!

This summer the charming town of Astoria, Oregon celebrates 200 years of existence.  I’m doing several paintings relating to it’s history (with coffee twists, of course!) and will be visiting during several art fairs and events.  Here’s one for all the hardworking fishermen!