Natural artist: Sudan painter uses tea and coffee to make colours

Khartoum: Sudanese artist Mutaz al-Fateh creates vibrant pictures with special ingredients; the paint he uses is made with colours derived from coffee grounds, tea leaves and shavings of fruit peel.

"I have a special vision in art," the 39-year-old said, surrounded by his eclectic art hung on the walls of his gallery in the capital Khartoum. "I am particularly interested in using natural materials."

Many of his paintings feature colours derived from the fruits of the doum palm tree, and ground up fruit from the bulbous baobab tree.

Fateh has spent his career crafting everything from everyday life images of Sudanese men and women in traditional dress to abstract drawings.

He takes pride in extracting pigments of blue, purple, and red from hibiscus leaves, shades of brown, beige, and gold from coffee grounds, and hues of black and grey from date seeds.

For many, these materials are simply food products, Fateh said. "But we can extract spectacular colours from them," he added. Fateh says he mixes the colour extracts with gum arabic and other organic substances to ensure their durability on surfaces.

The artist has been using his special recipes to create his unique paint for years, producing a wide selection of paintings.

Fateh says his way of extracting colours to make paint is a good way for aspiring artists in Sudan to cut the cost of expensive materials.

"The natural materials I use are very cheap," he said. "They are widely available on the market, some could be even acquired for free."

Al-Fateh shows one of his paintings made with colours derived from coffee grounds, at his gallery in Khartoum.