Method · Coffee
Painting with coffee
Coffee is one of Rouslam Botiev's working pigments. In the Alfama atelier he paints with it the way other artists use ink wash — building Lisbon streets, faces, and Oirat-Mongolian memory out of espresso-dark lines and pale, milky stains.
The method
From a cup to a wash
Botiev treats coffee as a watercolour he already knows by heart. Strong coffee, left to concentrate, becomes a deep sepia he can draw with; the same coffee thinned with water opens into the soft, warm greys that carry light across a sheet of paper.
He works wet, fast, and in layers. A first pale wash sets the warmth of a scene. Darker passes — pulled from the bottom of the cup — pin down a doorway, the turn of a shoulder, the weight of a Fado guitar. Where ink stays flat and final, coffee keeps a grain, and the smell of the café it came from.
Because each layer has to dry before the next, a coffee painting keeps its own clock. He lets the paper cockle, settle, and lighten, then returns — sometimes with ink for the sharpest lines, sometimes with a single red accent he saves for the thing that matters most.
Why coffee
An everyday Lisbon material
Botiev has lived in Lisbon since 2002, and coffee is the most ordinary thing in the city — a small cup on every counter from the Baixa to the top of Alfama. Painting with it is a way of working with what is already on the table, the same instinct that lets him write a visitor's name in Old Mongolian script on a postcard while they wait.
It is also a discipline. Coffee forgives nothing once it dries: there is no white paint to cover a wrong move, only the bare paper kept clear from the start. That risk is part of why the finished works feel alive.
From the studio
The material
Paper, tone, and time
He paints on rag and cotton papers that take repeated wetting without breaking down. The coffee itself ranges from a near-black espresso reduction to the palest latte grey, and the tone keeps shifting gently as it dries — which is why he judges a wash by how it will look tomorrow, not how it looks wet.
Kept out of direct sun and framed behind UV glass, the works hold their warmth. Botiev treats them as he treats any work on paper: archival, but honest about the fact that they began as a drink.
Questions about the coffee works
What kind of coffee does Rouslam Botiev paint with?
Ordinary brewed and espresso coffee. He concentrates it for the darkest lines and dilutes it with water for pale washes, the same way a watercolourist controls a single pigment.
Do coffee paintings fade over time?
Kept out of direct sunlight and ideally framed behind UV-protective glass, the works are stable. The tone settles as the coffee dries and then holds; Botiev paints on archival rag papers chosen to take repeated washes.
Can I buy or commission a coffee painting?
Yes. Available original works are listed in the shop, and commissions — including Lisbon and Alfama scenes — can be arranged directly through the atelier.
Where can I see the coffee works in person?
At Botiev's atelier in Alfama, Lisbon, on Travessa de São João da Praça, where he also draws personalised postcards with names in traditional Mongolian script.