On display in Ellis Library’s Bookmark Café are 16 paintings by Jan Coffman, a 2001 MU graduate.

Coffman said she finds inspiration for most of her paintings from nature.

“I love to walk in nature settings,” she said in an email. “I take long walks most mornings and take my camera with me. I enjoy the cool air and the bright colors of the morning — that is where I find most of my paintings.”

Coffman said she defines her paintings with a specific genre.

“I call my paintings contemporary realism because I am painting more than what my
camera picked up,” she said. “As I paint an object, I can still feel the breeze and smell the air. I relive the feelings I had at the time I was taking the picture.”

Coffman said she developed her digital sketching and design skills through her education. After teaching, she got her master’s degree in information science and learning technologies from MU in 2011.

“As an educator, technology trainer and Web designer, I developed my digital skills of sketching and painting in my Web design work,” she said. “In retirement, I am now able to devote more time to my passion of watercolors but now with digital painting tools.”

Some students said they enjoy Coffman’s art at the café when they study.

“I like how it gives the café a soothing and warm ambience,” sophomore Amy Tarleton said. “It’s subtle so it doesn’t distract you from studying. It really is pretty, and I enjoy it.”

Sophomore Cierra Jones said she enjoys Coffman’s artwork of MU.

“I like that she brought Mizzou indoors with some of her paintings,” she said.