Central Fire Station, Court Street, Nashua (Painting by Lisa Ciaccia)

Most people see coffee as a beverage. Not Nashua resident and self-taught artist Lisa Ciaccia. She sees coffee, most specifically instant coffee, as an artistic medium, and has made a name for herself using instant coffee to create some very unique paintings. Of particular interest is paintings she has created of such iconic Nashua buildings as the City Hall, the Odd Fellows Building, the former Hunt Memorial Library and the former Central Fire Station, now the home of Liquid Therapy.

Although she has used instant coffee to paint a number of different subjects, including people’s portraits, animals and classic cars, the medium of coffee really lends itself well to architecture, creating an almost sepia-tone finish or patina that is typical of older buildings.

Asked how she happened to think of using instant coffee, Ciaccia replied, “I fell into it rather by accident. Around 2015, I started hearing about painters in Great Britain using instant coffee.

Back then I hadn’t found anyone in the US artistic community using coffee so I thought I would give it a try. It worked! So, I started exhibiting my coffee paintings around 2016 and today, other artists have adopted it. But I must say it is a very unforgiving medium. Unlike acrylics or water color where mistake are easily fixed, if you mess-up a coffee painting, it usually means starting over.”

Ciaccia said she uses a “cold-press” paper for her coffee paintings, something typically used for water color paintings. “I’ve used canvas for coffee paintings but the cold-press paper is far better. It has a texture which allows it to cradle the texture better as it adheres to the paper fibers.”

Odd Fellows Building, Main Street, Nashua (Painting by Lisa Ciaccia)

To create a coffee painting, Ciaccia first makes a drawing of the subject, then fills it in with the coffee and water mixture. “I start with one tablespoon of instant coffee, and one tablespoon of water. Then if I want a lighter color, I add more water, if I want a darker color, I add more coffee. Unfortunately, instant coffee and water does not behave like paint in that it cannot easily be spread with a typical artist’s brush, especially darker shades with high coffee content. Dark colors must be dabbed on. It tends to be rather sticky and the brush won’t glide along.”

Sometimes she will use water-colors or acrylics to add accents to a painting that is otherwise coffee-based. In her coffee painting of Nashua’s Hunt Memorial Library, the building is created in coffee while the green grass in the foreground is water color.

Ciaccia isn’t particular about what brand of instant coffee she uses – any instant coffee works alright. She just can’t use regular-ground coffee – it turns to mush when wet. One time, on a commissioned painting for a special client, she used a Spanish imported coffee because of the client’s ties to the company. Another time, while displaying her work at an art show, Ciaccia was using instant coffee to paint a commissioned picture of a dog. An admirer walked up and asked what kind of dog it was. She replied, “It’s a mixed breed, Sanka and Nescafe.”

Presently, Ciaccia has created four coffee paintings of Nashua landmarks, and plans to do a few more. She also enjoys painting classic cars, landscapes, seascapes, and sea-life as subjects. Her paintings have even gone into space. On September 15th 2021, Ciaccia was honored to have one of her watercolor paintings go to space aboard the SpaceX Inspiration4 all-civilian crew mission; brought aboard with Dr. Sian Proctor, pilot of the Dragon space craft that spent 3 days orbiting earth and conducting research.

Having never been formally trained as an artist, on her web site, Ciaccia describes how she developed her talent and style, “A brush and paints mixed into a passion for life, and dabbed onto canvas has been my education; nature has been my teacher. If you silently observe it, nature will give you it’s secrets; you eventually figure out how to interpret them with a paintbrush.”

Nashua City Hall (Painting by Lisa Ciaccia)

The Whistler House Museum of Art chose three of Ciaccia’s Instant Coffee paintings to exhibit as part of the LOWELL: My Hometown Exhibition at the UMASS Lowell Inn and Conference Center in conjunction with the James McNeill Whistler Distinguished Art Award event. Shown were iconic buildings of Lowell. She has also exhibited her work at several Nashua art shows.

When asked about working with other food items Ciaccia explained, “I have also worked with gourds, creating colorful vases, bowls, birdhouses and the like.”

Ciaccia works full time, following her passion for painting in her “off” hours, and displaying her work at shows during the spring, summer and fall. From her web site Ciaccia writes that she, “…enjoys peaceful early mornings painting in her private studio.”

Author Gary Ledoux is a Nashua native, now retired and living in Florida. Writing professionally since 1992, he recently published “Nashua’s Bravest: The History of Firefighting in Nashua N.H.”

Artist Lisa Ciaccia works on a painting of a dolphin. Ciaccia uses coffee – more specifically – instant coffee as an artistic medium in her paintings. (Photo courtesy of Gary Ledoux)

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