Artistic Coffee Flows at The Fountain Gallery
A new art display running in January at Hampton Court, London’s The Fountain Gallery, will be showing a unique collection by a Greek-Cypriot artist using coffee as his main media.
Based in Teddington, where he settled in 1996 following his graduation from Hornsey College of Arts Painting School, Michael Minas was inspired by his choice of media as a result of the "endless drinking of coffee" he remembers from the village he grew up in as a child, as well as the tradition of fortune telling from coffee-grounds. Not only this, but the artist also recently discovered some Victorian varnish with a similar coffee at his home, which served as an additional source of inspiration for his new works.
Displayed alongside his works with other media such as oils, pastels and acrylics, Minas’s coffee-inspired artwork will form part of the Synthesis exhibition at the Hampton Court Gallery. This follows other group as well as individual displays that the artist has been involved in, including The Stables Gallery at Twickenham’s Orleans House and the Robert Phillips Gallery located in Walton-on-Thames.
Talking of the effect he aspires to create through the use of coffee for his work, Minas commented, "The technique I am using creates an intriguing quality akin to that seen in the dying embers of a fire, or in clouds, when one can take the time to gaze and invent images and scenarios from them."