ASHTABULA, Ohio — In this small lakefront town about 50 miles east of Cleveland, artist Alyssa Ennis is in the kitchen starting her morning off the way many people do—brewing coffee. Her home in Ashtabula has a modern farmhouse feel. The kitchen where she's working is dominated by a large island, and off to the side is a table with Edison-style lights hanging above that give it all a warm glow.
Ennis is meticulous, someone with an attention to detail who likes everything to be as perfect as possible. Coffee is no different. Some days she starts the day off with regular beans. On other days, espresso. Measurements exact, she grinds the beans and adds the grounds to a shallow pan of water on the stove. From there, she boils it down to a concentrate. Once it reaches the proper color and consistency, she pours it in a bowl and enjoys the fragrant aroma that swirls around the kitchen.
Now, Ennis is ready to start her day. She sits down at the island and reaches for a sheet of paper. The care and effort she put into brewing this particular batch of java would make a barista proud, but instead of a sip, it's a dunk, as carefully selects her first brush and dips it in.
Ennis is an artist who specializes in creating paintings with coffee.
A strong support system
While she's only been painting with coffee for a year-and-a-half, her interest in painting with it goes back to when she was a child.
"My dad actually did a coffee painting a long time ago when I was probably in elementary school. When he brought it home, I thought it was something cool. I didn’t know that you could use coffee. It’s kind of stuck with me ever since then," she said.
Beyond that, coffee has always been a big part of her life. Growing up in Ashtabula, Ennis has fond memories of visiting the local coffee shop, Harbor Perk. She would go there to hang out with family and friends.
"It's been kind of a special place for me," she said. "And that's why I wanted to use them for different local places."
Ennis gets her favorite drinks there and also the beans she brews for her coffee creations. Every painting she has done with coffee has used beans purchased from that shop.
Her original inspiration, her father Denny, said her art comes from within.
"She's got a good eye. She's taught herself. Yeah, she's had classes in school like everybody else did. I think she had maybe one art class or possibly two and that was it. Other than that, she's just done it on her own," Denny said.
And while Alyssa's father's original coffee painting may have been an inspiration to her, he said her talent eclipsed anything he did with it.
"Mine was pretty primitive, you know, in comparison," he said. "I'm very proud of her. And, you know, we've always been real close.
"She's just beautiful inside and out. I mean, her personality, her passion is a big thing. She cares about her family a ton. She cares about her town. She cares about the area."
Paintings that feel like home
The joy of painting is twofold for Ennis. One part of why she does it is the creation process itself. She paints for the pleasure of it. The other part is to show someone something they may have never seen before.
"I just want people to experience it if they haven’t been there. Or maybe they have seen the place a hundred times and it gives them a new view of that area," she said. "If I can make something meaningful for someone, that’s the biggest thing, too. That’s my main goal. I love it. I would be creating art whether people see it or not. It’s just a part of me. Love it, everything about it."
Right now, Ennis has several coffee paintings done in the series she hopes to continue. She started with the Ashtabula Lighthouse and then painted the town's lift bridge.
Since then, she's done the Guardians of Traffic and is finishing her Playhouse Square piece. Something about seeing them all done in the nostalgic hues of brown seems to capture their essence.
The secret to her coffee art is that it all starts outside away from her kitchen. She likes to photograph everything, from the natural beauty Ohio has to offer to the architecture found in Cleveland and other cities. She uses the reference photographs she takes as the starting point for her paintings.
Then she'll take her photograph and sketch out the design from it. She also imports her photographs into editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop and converts the photo to a sepia tone to get an idea of the values she will need when concocting her brew.
And then it's time for coffee.
While other artists use things like charcoal, graphite, oils or acrylics, Ennis says coffee gives her the opportunity to make her own medium.
"I like coffee because it has a sepia or antique look. It’s monochromatic, so you kind of have different tones of the coffee in the painting, and you can use it dark or light," she said.
She brews her coffee in small batches for each painting.
"When I cook it on the stovetop it will be a nice, concentrated consistency, and that’s when it’s at its darkest value. And then as I add a little bit of water at a time, it becomes a lighter value. So, it gets a lot of variation in the pieces," Ennis said.
She experiments with the different types of beans, usually leaning towards espresso and dark roast. Once the coffee has cooled down, she uses it like any other type of paint, adjusting the strength and color of it as she works.
"People are usually pretty surprised because nobody knows a lot about coffee paintings,” she said. “There’s not many people that I have seen do it before. Usually when I’m explaining it to people, they're interested but not sure what to expect. Then when I show it, they are pretty excited.”
Her coffee paintings take an average of around 100 hours to complete.
A shared love of art
As a child, Alyssa's father, Denny Parker, had a woodshop where he would work on different projects. "As he was working, he had a little pull-out desk that he would let me draw at. I always thought that was the best thing growing up, like that was really fun for me," she said.
From elementary school on, she would work side-by-side with her father—him on wood carvings or other projects, while she worked on her drawings.
"I think my dad is proud. He's been supportive. I am fortunate to have a good support system," she said.
The love of creating was something they both shared.
Denny said Alyssa started hanging out in the woodshop when she was 5 or 6 years old.
"I made a little desk for her over in the corner. She used to draw pictures and stuff, and then as she got a little older, I worked with her a little bit with carving wood. She would carve little animals and then she'd paint them," he said.
Alyssa said her father is a reason why she's an artist to this day. Working on those early projects helped her flex her creative mind at a young age.
"It’s always been a part of what I do, what I love. It’s something we definitely share together. We still work on things together, too, which is really fun. We have a good time doing it," she said. "My dad absolutely inspired me from a very young age. He’s very talented, even though he may not say it himself, but he definitely inspires me at art. It’s been a nice gift."
The start of a business
While she's still an accountant, Ennis is making moves to become an artist full-time. In preparation for that eventuality, she set up Alyssa Ennis Art LLC in early April.
"I’ve been building up to it for a while. I just decided that I wanted to go for it. I’m excited," she said.
She also set up a website to showcase her talents.
Aside from that, Ennis is active on social media. She uses her Instagram account to not only show off her finished pieces but to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the entire process from start to finish.
Using Instagram Reels, Ennis shows the viewer the start-to-finish aspect of the paintings and the inspiration of each piece by taking the painting back to the scene.
Ennis is able to take the viewer with her and really make them feel like they are part of the process.
"I think you get a whole different perspective when you see it through somebody else’s eyes. So I want people to experience the locations," she said.
From the kitchen in her home in Ashtabula, Ennis turns her focus back to adding the finishing touches to her most recent painting of Playhouse Square. With brush in hand and a smile on her face, she reaches across the island towards the small bowl of coffee, dips the brush in and makes the final strokes on the last bit of blank canvas.
CLICK HERE for more information about Ennis, her art and her website.
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