Meet 'The Coffee Guy': The Local Artist Painting Portraits In Coffee At Top Dose Roastery
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Illustrator Teko Malefo swapped paint for brewed coffee to portrait the Master Roaster at Top Dose Roastery team live at the 4 Ways Farmers Market. Here's how it happened, on a normal day at the market.
On 22 August, Top Dose Coffee Raostery become an artist's studio that just happens to run on espresso. Illustrator Teko Malefo set up an easel and did something we haven't seen at 4 Ways Farmers Market before - a portrait painted entirely in brewed coffee.
Using Top Dose coffee, brewed to different strengths, layered on like watercolour, a portrait of Head Roaster, Japhet Matimbe, came to life. Painted in their own coffee, in their own roastery.
"I've been doing this since I was six, I guess, and I've decided to visit this coffee shop today to illustrate actually the guy who generates the coffee beans," Teko told Kasi Wave Media on the day. "So I decided to come and show him, to give him that respect and give him something special."
Each portrait started as a pencil sketch, gridded up on the easel next to a printed, contrast-edited reference photo. Teiko's own process for mapping out depth before a single drop of coffee touched the page. From there, the coffee takes over, a handful of coffee cups, each brewed to a different strength, became the palette.
Coffee is Teko's signature medium. He started experimenting with unconventional materials (bleach, sand, sugar) before landing on the one that stuck.
"I fell in love with coffee because I am the coffee guy."
We asked what the toughest thing he's ever had to paint with coffee was. His answer wasn't about the medium, it was about really seeing his subject. "The hardest thing that I've ever painted with is paint, but it wasn't paint itself, it was the person that I was talking with... his eye is crooked, and I had to make it look like it was. Funny enough, when I submitted the portrait, he literally said, "I like the fact that you did this eye the way it was." This has since become one of his signature style treatments.
Visitors at 4 Ways Farmers Market on the day were unexpectedly surprised by the live art experience and many went on to chat with Japhet Matimbe about his craft and experience having grown up on a coffee farm, all while watching the creative collaboration come to life in real time.
Teko is open for bookings if you want your own portrait done in coffee.
Instagram: @teko.malefo or contact: 071 000 0933
A creative collaboration with Top Dose Roastery, 4 Ways Farmers Market, Kasi Wave Media, and Teko Malefo.
