and mood would define her direction as a painter.

In her own words, Coffee’s mature work is an “exercise in engineering.” Working elements from various sources into one coherent picture, she acts like a theater director, casting interesting characters from disparate venues and endeavoring to portray them as part of one harmonious scene. Coffee is careful to articulate that her paintings are more about the individual than the overall arrangement. Fashionable interiors simply provide the dark tones, drama or nonchalance she needs to preserve the integrity and spontaneity of the moment or gesture she is trying to capture.

Coffee’s formal approach is decidedly modernist; she uses values to make a statement as much as the narrative elements.  In her compositions, linear forms are not strictly defined, but emerge from gradual definition of shaded areas. Within carefully executed, impressionist paintings, her audience delights in small details that define action or light source. For instance, a slice of white along the rim of eyeglasses, or reflected in a line of bottles behind a bar, keeps the eye moving toward the motion in her paintings and invites the viewer to participate in the moment she observed.

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