Porn, glitter, and ugly ladies are what Vivian Grimes paints. Crown Royal, Guinness and Canadian Club are what she drinks. Bartenders, drunken losers and her high school janitor who she's still trying to forget are the men in her life. At the age of twenty-five, Vivian Grimes is selling her paintings in a New York bar. Her days begin in the afternoon, hung over with a messy painting from the night before that she fixes into something she can sell. The Coffee Painter is about an unlucky Canadian artist who is trapped by booze, bad lovers, ugly paintings and violent neighbours.