Brewing art: Coffee painters spotlight Filipino creativity in new holiday exhibit

From vibrant works of art created with watercolors, oils, and acrylics, a new medium with a twist has emerged — coffee.

After a year on the scene, The Coffee Artists PH has nothing but love and admiration for the Philippine artistic landscape. With this, they strive to consistently present coffee as a medium for art due to its accessibility and affordability.

“With coffee, you just buy it at a store, you have a medium already. All you need is a brush and a paper, and you're good,” said the organization’s founder and president, Anwylen F. Gano, Friday evening.

Admittedly a modernist approach to the painting scene, Gano said that joining exhibits has become a way for them to introduce coffee painting to a wider audience.

Aside from participating in shows, the group also opened an exhibit of their own — The Brewing Joy: A Holiday Coffee Art Exhibit — located at The Red Gallery in Summit Hotel Greenhills, San Juan City. It will be open to the public until 1 February 2026.

Their holiday showcase highlights various Christmas themes such as parols, the birth of Jesus, and children caroling, but also includes pieces featuring other subjects like flowers and women.

To the young, talents flow

One of the group's efforts to increase public awareness of their work is to hold workshops.

“We held workshops; we gave workshops to children, to students, so that they would be aware that coffee can be used as a medium,” Gano remarked.

Their efforts extend not just to the young but also to far-flung areas like Talavera, Nueva Ecija.

The opening of their Christmas exhibit also featured a live painting with a talk from Wilfredo “Yeye” Calderon, a key figure in the Philippine painting scene.

While working on his live piece, Calderon explained different techniques that could help painters improve their coffee craft — such as the use of sharp objects to create white elements in a piece, alongside achieving the right consistency of water and coffee.

Coffee’s long-term artistic effects

Gano further explained that coffee paintings also last long-term, just like any paintings created with other media.

“All of it is sealed with fixative, with varnish. So even if it's coffee, it’s been around for a long time. It could last 20, 30 years,” she explained.