KOCHI: Coffee is no more just an ingredient used to make a drink. Priyanka Gupta Agarwal has found a way to make art out of it. Using the regular Nescafe coffee powder, she had been making coffee art since 2003. “It was the colour of coffee that motivated me to experiment with it. Also the texture of it made the art look better,” she says.
The artist born in 1979 took up painting professionally in 2003. Recalling her first stint with coffee art she says, “It was an abstract painting of a landscape with lotuses in it. It was made in Kolkata where I lived.”
Taking her art forward, she now conducts workshop in Bangalore. “Coffee lovers are the ones who mostly attend the workshop. They are either beginners or experienced artists. They like the smell of coffee while working on the art. Some also enjoy the lingering smell of it after it is made,” she says.
One girl attended my workshop to make a gift to her boyfriend on his birthday. He loved lotuses so the art she made had lotuses in it, she recalls. “Another girl made a portrait of herself as she wanted to express herself through the work. It is also therapeutic that way,” she says.
An armature artist can complete one painting in one session that lasts for two to three hours, she mentions.
One can make it in matte finish as well as make it shine. “While for matte finish one has to mix coffee with water, adding glue to it can make it shine,” she explains. The consistency of coffee powder varies depending on the art. “It has to be a little thick if one wants to make something like a flower,” says the self-taught artist.
Even her work were mostly picked up for gifting purpose in between 2003 and 2005 where she would make the art. It evolved over time and she started mixing it with acrylic which “gave a different texture”. While she no more makes coffee art herself, her love for the art encouraged her to teach it to others.
“That was a part of my experiment as an artist buy now I focus only on making art with acrylic and pen and art,” she says.