Calvin at the Roaster

This was my first time seeing the industrial process of coffee roasting. It was cold in the warehouse and around me deliveries were coming and going. I spent a couple of hours this morning trying to get a sense of what it was like, getting a feel for the movement, light, all that. I was painting in a kind of dark spot and had a hard time seeing the colors as I put them down. I also know the painting is going to hang in a spot that's not brightly lit, so I upped the intensity of the light areas, although you can see that it's a pretty high contrast scene anyway. Coffee roasting is on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I'll be back at this tomorrow.

I'm also trying to paint "solvent-free" both to decrease the amount of stuff I have to drag around and maybe do a little environmental good. So far, I'm pretty pleased with the way my brushes have cleaned up just using linseed oil while painting and baby oil to clean up.