It has been a while since yours truly contributed to this wonderful blog, but hopefully I’d be able to contribute regularly from now on. Since a previous post featured donuts and coffee in it, I figured that this would a good time to write about a painter who uses the much loved drink as her medium. Besides, in as much as we would like to feature stuff about good food (read: yummy food), we would also like to feature food art (although in this case, the art is not edible, unless you’re open to eating coffee flavored paper).
Now without further adieu, Saan Tayo Kakain introduces you to Sunshine Plata, coffee painter extraordinaire (thus far she is the only known coffee painter in the country). Sunshine uses instant coffee the same way other painters use watercolor when painting. Now you might wonder how Sunshine is able to paint with just one color. I suppose it’s all in the shading. Now that’s one way of putting coffee to good use (another way would be to dip a day old pandesal –literally, bread of salt, although I’ve yet to taste a salty pandesal–to soften it, but you’d only know that if you’re one with the proletariat…anyhow).
According to Sunshine, She first discovered that coffee could be used as paint when she stumbled upon an old painting signed by the artist in coffee. Sunshine then decided that if coffee could be used to sign one’s name, then it could be a good enough medium as, say, watercolor. The rest, as the old cliché goes, is history.
Hoopla about the novelty of coffee painting aside, Sunshine’s work is fairly good. She has been able to paint images of religious icons, fairies and butterflies, among many other subjects. The paintings have been featured in the Martha Stewart show and in the local TV networks and to top it off, the Ripley’s Museum bought and displays her painting. A fairly good indicator of how good her paintings are, if I may say so myself.
Ironically, the coffee painter does not drink coffee. Check out her blog (which has a catalogue of her works) at http://d1wata.wordpress.com
Disclaimer: all artwork featured in this article belongs to Sunshine Plata.
huwaw! extraordinaire nga.. :D parang yung isang artist na napanood ko sa tv..though clay naman o putik yung ginagamit nun.. ;)