Leslie Armstrong prefers her coffee with a paint brush.<\/p>\n
Armstrong, an arts teacher at Kentwood High School, uses coffee to paint portraits.<\/p>\n
Armstrong\u2019s works, as well as those of painter Debbie Gronholz and photographer Joanne Montzingo, will be displayed through Nov. 30 on the walls at the Bittersweet Restaurant, 211 First Ave. S. in downtown Kent.<\/p>\n
The Kent artists and friends call their show, \u201cTwo Paint Brushes, Coffee and a Camera.\u201d The show officially opened Nov. 7 with a no-host dinner and performances by Kentwood music students.<\/p>\n
Armstrong first experimented with painting with coffee about two years ago after attending an arts-educator workshop where the instructor used teas, inks and other stains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had my coffee with me and I played with it,\u201d Armstrong said during an interview last week at the Bittersweet Restaurant. \u201cIt\u2019s more sculpturing than drawing or painting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armstrong paints the coffee paintings in layers, letting one layer dry before she starts the next layer. She uses espresso for the darker colors.<\/p>\n
When setting up for the show last week, Armstrong unveiled a portrait of Paul Newman and Robert Redford from the movie, \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of Armstrong\u2019s portraits are of coffee farmers and their families. She wants the paintings to help raise awareness of the plight of Latin American coffee farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to put a positive image on the families who make coffee and change the world one cup at a time,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n
The images of Armstrong\u2019s portraits are being used by the Camano Island Coffee Roasters company as wrappers for chocolate bars that the company will sell to help raise money for coffee farmers and their children. The bars will sold at the show, but Armstrong isn\u2019t selling her coffee paintings, yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis collection still has a job to do before it\u2019s sold,\u201d Armstrong said of her efforts to tell about the plight of coffee farmers. She also suggested the Web site, www.coffeekids.org, as a place for people to learn more about how to help coffee farmers.<\/p>\n
Gronholz, who teaches photography at Kentwood, has several floral paintings on display that are for sale. Gronholz painted greeting cards for several years for Madison Park Greetings of Seattle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the colors and painting is like an adventure \u2014 it either turns out or not,\u201d Gronholz said. \u201cI love the colors and the blending and the creating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montzingo, who teaches nutrition classes at Valley Medical Center in Renton and Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue, started to take photography seriously about five years ago. Montzingo is the wife of Kentwood health teacher Dean Montzingo, the former boys basketball coach for the Conquerors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to be in regular situations and isolate certain characteristics of where I am,\u201d Montzingo said of her technique.<\/p>\n
Montzingo\u2019s photos on display include a close-up shot of farmers\u2019 hands, as well as pictures of tomatoes and other vegetables at a farmers market in Santa Barbara, Calif.<\/p>\n
Bittersweet Restaurant is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
If you go<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cTwo Paint Brushes, Coffee and a Camera.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Through Nov. 30.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Bittersweet Restaurant, 211 First Ave. S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leslie Armstrong prefers her coffee with a paint brush. Armstrong, an arts teacher at Kentwood High School, uses coffee to paint portraits. Armstrong\u2019s works, as well as those of painter Debbie Gronholz and photographer Joanne Montzingo, will be displayed through Nov. 30 on the walls at the Bittersweet Restaurant, 211 First Ave. S. in downtown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":15141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15140"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}