Next -- Back to Quartermaine's for Cupping

I went to the warehouse today to watch "cupping" -- the fascinating tasting process that coffee roasters use to select and blend coffees.  I'm going to start a new, huge painting of the scene, but today I had two logistical problems.  One was that the canvas I wanted to work on was way too big, so I was going to do sketches.  The other problem is that the aroma of the different coffees is a big part of the cupping (much like wine tasting includes that swirl in the glass and deep sniff) and that is mutually exclusive with a palette of pungent oil paint and cup of linseed oil (even though I don't use turpentine, the paint definitely makes itself known).  So I'll be working from photos.  As much as I like the scene with the view into the roasting plant through the window,  I think the winner is the picture I took from up on a stool looking in to get a fuller look at the coffee.

This could take a while to paint.  I hope to get it done so it can go into the store in early 2013.