Painting with coffee 'addictive' for local artist

An Edmonton artist has made painting with coffee her niche and recently completed 1,000 projects.

Linda Finstad started using coffee at the beginning of the pandemic when stores were closed and art supplies were hard to come by.

"Originally I liked to use acrylics but at the beginning of the lockdown everything was closed and I was out of some of my colours so I thought what am I going to do? I am not just going to do nothing? So I started experimenting," Finstad told CTV News Edmonton at her Mill Woods home.

Finstad tried ketchup and mustard, among other things, but ultimately landed on instant coffee. She hasn't looked back.

"It absolutely transformed my art business," she said.

Finstad uses three different strengths of coffee to create highlights and shadows.

Her speciality is painting angels and adding quirky quotes and sayings.

She's been posting them online daily and has amassed a following.

"They're not the angels you see on Christmas cards. My angels have big bums, frizzy hair and even bigger attitudes," she said. "People absolutely loved them."

She now sells greeting cards and prints and has published five books filled with illustrations.

In August, she completed her thousandth coffee painting and celebrated with a night out.

"It's very addictive, you know. All around it's very addictive," she laughed.

Finstad says she's on a mission to make coffee painting a recognized art form.

She teaches classes and has created a Facebook group bringing coffee artists together.

"Instead of just a novelty, it can become a real thing like watercolour or oils."