Gary Duquette

Wine, Beer and Coffee Paintings

Gary has developed a very unique method of painting using traditional watercolor techniques. These little paintings are produced using wine and a slice of the cork is used as a brush that is included with the painting at it’s completion. The white is that of the paper and no paint is used in the process. Over time, coffee and beer have been added as mediums.

Please feel free to request anything special you may desire, or call for an appointment to view Gary’s unique art products in person. Some of the images are capture to produce Giclee prints, but most are sold as originals. Custom framing is available for any of the unframed pieces. Please contact Gary directly for custom framing. This inventory is updated to include new paintings as they are produced.

Framing Options

If you are interested in custom framing options for your wine, coffee, or beer painting, please contact Gary directly. Below are two framing options and custom frame options are always available.

The Story

This little summary is written because everyone wants to know how Gary got this wild idea! Three occurrences have led to these unique paintings becoming my most popular paintings. The first was in 2009 at Duquette’s Art and Frame Studio. I put on a show for local artist Deborah Elaine. Deb had many watercolors that were wine themed. At the show opening, one of my regular customers may have had too much wine and came to me and said, “Gary why don’t you just paint with the damn wine? Why does it have to be a painting about wine things?!” The next day, Deb and I got a bottle and experimented with it. As it happened, we had a show at a wine tasting at Fawn Lake Country Club that coming weekend, so we framed a couple and sold them immediately as we denominated painting with wine! As any artist would do when something sells, we made more!

The second thing was deb said, “You are a custom frame shop, why don’t you slice a cork off and put it in the frame under the painting in a cut out?” Thus came the idea from another customer. I had occasionally did little paintings with a twig and sold the painting along with the twig. A woman that bought one of these paintings said, “Don’t think me you did that painting with a piece of cork!” I said, “No, but that’s a great idea!” So, I think experimented to find out cork has the same absorbency as a brush. I began advertising these paintings were performed without using paint or a brush, and so I then began using the cork as a part of the paintings as I did the twigs.

Lastly, this was in part created as a new medium for me because of my dear Mom. I came to Florida to take care of her in October 2015. She was 86 at the time. When I brought my watercolors into the house to paint, she said “You’re not bringing those paints into my house! You’ll get it on my nice carpet. You can paint outside on the porch!” Anyone that tries to paint watercolor in ninety plus degrees knows it is not an easy task. So, I started painting with wine inside as she was okay with that. Eventually, I started using coffee and beer which was also allowed in Mom’s home. Mom has since passed away, and I can paint with watercolor at home again, but I will continue to paint with wine, beer, and coffee for her to continue creating and refining the techniques I now use.

So, here is a very special thanks to Deborah Elaine, who was on the ground floor with me when we first experimented, the customers who gave me their ideas, and to my dear Mom.