Coffee Drawings Blog

Hot new Carmean etching just off the press!

2010-07-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

This etching has just been printed and is currently available at the Poetic Eye Gallery (0nline and on ebay). It was originally created in the 1990's and is of one of Carmean's favorite themes, that of the artist and model. The image is 9 x 9" and was printed by master printer John Greco of Josephine Press in Santa Monica, CA. - this print really delivers and it is one of my personal favorites!

Carmean & Slater @ Thomas Paul Fine Art in Los Angeles

2010-07-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

Come see some gorgeous paintings of nudes by Harry Carmean at Thomas Paul Fine Arts in Los Angeles, opening 6:00-9:00 pm on Saturday July 24. Also featured will be Slater's surreal landscapes which were done concurrently with her surreal erotic form drawings featured at coffeedrawings.com. Enjoy!

Erotic forms within Harry Carmean's paintings

2010-05-26T13:05:00.000-07:00

Harry Carmean would sometimes incorporate forms in his artwork that suggested sexual organs, both male and female. For example in the painting above, an abstracted vagina can be seen in the painting in the background. By doing this Carmean would subliminally make the painting more sexy without being too overt about it. Lorser Feitelson, with whom Carmean studied for many years did this too, and in some of his most important works although many people have yet to realize it! But if you start to look, the hidden forms will become apparent.

How the "coffee drawings" began

2010-05-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

After Harry and I were married in 1986 we started sketching erotic drawings for each other every morning over a cup of coffee (hence the name of this site - "coffee drawings"). It started rather innocuously, when Harry left me a simple suggestive sketch before going off to work and to which I responded with a sketch of my own. It quickly escalated into the more involved erotic works seen at coffeedrawings.com. In Harry's case, the eroticism of the drawings carried over into other mediums resulting in erotic prints, sculptures, watercolors and even large paintings. While his work always had a smouldering sensuality to it, it wasn't until we began these drawings that Carmean's sensuality morphed into unabashed sexuality.

In the beginning we would simply start the day with our morning coffee and while sipping it we would draw some of the most provocative sensual things we could think of for each other....we found it quite amusing and it was a great way to keep up our drawing skills. We covered many themes in the drawings, such as centaurs, harlequins (a personal favorite), acrobats, Greek mythology, sexy shapes and letters, erotic tea cups, and so on. The photo was taken of us in our breakfast nook in Laurel Canyon in the early 1990’s where many of the drawings were made. We are making erotic drawings to each other in the photo in it hence the slightly sly smiles.

After we had children, my output was drastically reduced and after they grew older we had to go “undercover”, but Harry continued to draw and paint these works well into the 2000’s. After many years of remaining unseen by anyone, it seemed like a good thing to share them with others so they could enjoy them as much as we have.

Harry Carmean's erotic watercolors

2010-05-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

Harry Carmean first explored the watercolor medium early in his career. In fact an entire show of his watercolors (mostly landscapes) was stolen in the early 1940’s which is one reason there are only a few of Carmean’s early watercolors in existence. Later, after starting to explore erotic themes in his drawings and prints in the 1990’s, Carmean began experimenting with watercolors after a forty year hiatus. Watercolors with their splashy, free quality, naturally complimented the erotic subject matter and they, brought out a “fun” side of Carmean which wasn’t readily seen in his more formal oil paintings as can be seen above.

Erotic prints by Harry Carmean

2010-05-25T22:34:00.000-07:00

Harry Carmean began his first series of etchings in the early 1970’s, however, it wasn’t until the 1990’s that they evolved into distinctly erotic works. The result was a series of etchings that were ribald in nature while at the same time witty and sophisticated from an artistic viewpoint. In them, he expanded on themes explored earlier in his career, such as the artist and model or the harlequin themes.

Carmean has his own etching press, so in the beginning he was able to print his own proofs. Later he commissioned John Greco of Josephine Press in Los Angeles to create complete editions from the plates. Not all the plates have been printed as of this writing so there are a number of gorgeous prints by Carmean that have never been seen. One new edition is currently in production now and should be available in July. A number of Carmean’s erotic prints are available on ebay and at the poetic eye gallery online (poeticeye.com).

Harry Carmean Valentine's Day paintings

2010-02-10T20:31:00.000-08:00

Valentine’s Day was one of the few holidays Harry and I actually believed in, after all what is not to like about the theme of love? So, every Valentine’s Day, we would present each other with romantic paintings as gifts to each other. Over the course of the many years we have been married, this has amounted to what has become a rather substantial collection of paintings of couples embracing or kissing.

Welcome to the coffee drawings blog!

2010-01-16T21:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome to this blog which is about the erotic art that Harry Carmean and I made for each other over the course of many years. Most of the work has never been seen and so it seemed like a good time to finally share it with the other people with similar "interests". We began making these drawings in the mid 1980's (after we had just gotten married) and then continued along through the 1990's. We got in the habit of calling them "coffee drawings" because they were done as we sipped our morning coffee. The middle drawing is one of mine, the other two are Harry's. A number of our erotic drawings are currently available on ebay at the Poetic Eye on ebay at a very reasonable price. Also the erotic work can be seen at coffeedrawings.com, Harry's art is at harrycarmean.com and I am at miriamslater.com.