Highlights
- There was a 17-year gap wherein artist Cecilia Cabalquinto didn't work on her art.
- She decided to try using coffee as paint because it worked very similarly to watercolour, her favourite medium.
- Cecilia is currently experimenting painting with beer, tea and wine.
SBS Filipino's 'Kape Serye' is a collection of features celebrating Filipino-owned cafés; Filipino baristas, producers, distributors and coffee aficionados; and of course, the Philippine-grown coffee bean.
"I never really thought I would become an artist because of practicality. I was always told I wouldn't earn as much from it as a regular job, so I had to be realistic. I thought art for me would just always be a hobby," Cecilia Cabalquinto shares.
Thinking that art would just be a hobby, Cecilia took a break from sketching for 17 years.
Cecilia took a break from sketching for 17 years. Source: Cecilia Cabalquinto
The 17-year sketch
"There was a huge gap between graduating from industrial design in uni up to this point that I didn't sketch and didn't focus on art. The gap was between 2000 to 2017."
Between those years, Cecilia concentrated on making a living as a visual merchandiser instead.
"My work still had something to do with art, but it revolved more around creating window displays for stores and arranging clothes. I did that in the Philippines and I did that as well for Country Road in Darwin when we migrated in 2008.
"When we moved to Geelong in Victoria when my husband found a job as a chef, I found work as a visual merchandiser again. I would set up merchandising inside stores like Myer and David Jones. My focus was on fashion."
"My work still had something to do with art, but it revolved more around creating window displays for stores and arranging clothes." Source: RODNAE Productions from Pexels
Before focusing on fashion, Cecilia's childhood art pieces consisted of creating posters, logos and cartoon characters.
"My favourite cartoon character to draw was Princess Allura from Voltron," she laughs, adding, "When I dabbled with cray-pas, I remember enjoying drawing on rainbow colours and colouring black over them. I then sketched out over the black to reveal the colours. I loved that!"
Moments on paper
From coloured cray pas, Cecilia's current favourite one-colour medium to paint with is coffee - espresso to be precise.
"I hated watercolour before because it was hard to work with; but then when I gave it another try, I realised that I loved it," she shares, adding, "Coffee is very similar to watercolour in that it's about layering light colours first and then dark ones."
"Coffee is very similar to watercolour in that it's about layering light colours first and then dark ones." Source: Cecilia Cabalquinto
Cecilia says that her husband was the one who suggested she try coffee as a painting medium because of her acquired loved for watercolour.
"I tried instant coffee first. I did a portrait of my daughter and it was pretty good. I enjoyed doing it.
"Then one time I was in a café with my kids and coincidentally, I had my paper and I had my fine liners. I thought I could draw the scene I was looking at. I wanted to capture that particular moment in the café; so I ordered my usual espresso and used it as paint. That was my first coffee painting."
Cecilia buys espresso from her favourite cafés and draws the scenes she observes. Source: Cecilia Cabalquinto
From her first piece, Cecilia built her coffee art portfolio and aimed to publicly exhibit her work.
"An artist friend of mine owned a gallery in Newtown, the art district in our area. The suburb is full of art galleries and cafés. I had my exhibit there last October."
Although she admits that the challenge of building her body of work was daunting, she revelled in the medium she used and the moments she captured.
"Painting with coffee is zen-like for me. It's a test in patience.
"I love how the sepia colour of the coffee translates on paper, but it's a gradual process. Sometimes I let the coffee sit in the fridge for a week so that the liquid darkens and becomes thicker. This makes it easier to work with; but just like watercolour, painting with coffee requires drying before adding on another layer to make sure the piece doesn't look flat especially since it's only one colour."
The one-colour pieces feature her loved ones hiding in the scenery as well as café moments which "overflow with different emotions".
"I love how the sepia colour of the coffee translates on paper, but it's a gradual process." Source: Cecilia Cabalquinto
"Someone can be sitting on his own, reading a book. Another table can have a couple enjoying their time together. Friends can meet up. It's the perfect place to find both solace and to gather.
"I was worried when the pandemic hit because we weren't allowed to sit and linger inside cafés; but because we were allowed outside, I started drawing the facade of my favourite spots, of people lining up for their coffee. They were interpretations of the time we were living and people loved them!"
Cheers!
"They were interpretations of the time we were living and people loved them!" Source: Cecilia Cabalquinto
From coffee, Cecilia is now experimenting with other edible media - namely beer, tea and wine.
"I find wine and beer to be a bit trickier than coffee because they are more transluscent. I'm still researching on the process, but what I plan on doing is drawing scenes from pubs and wineries for these two materials."
But while she experiments with beer and wine, she continues to perfect her work with coffee.
"I'm focusing on our vibrant coffee culture in Victoria first, but I want to eventually travel around Australia and feature other cafés and roasters too. It would be great to get in touch with my roots and feature roasters in the Philippines as well. I'll need all the time in the world!" she laughs.
Cecilia is hoping to eventually travel around Australia to feature roasters and cafés around the country. Source: Cecilia Cabalquinto
Eventually, Cecilia hopes to collate all her pieces and publish a book.
"I'm leading to that someday I hope. I want to continue capturing moments and people in my work.
"Art means so different to me during this time in my life. I never fathomed I would be an artist; but now art for me is really about a dream fulfilled."
"Art means so different to me during this time in my life. I never fathomed I would be an artist; but now art for me is really about a dream fulfilled." Source: Cecilia Cabalquinto
