Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #105. December 29, 2016.

Happy LAST Thirsty Thursday!  I started releasing a new beer painting every week on Thirsty Thursdays in 2015, starting the day after I completed the Year of Beer Paintings, a series of 365 oil paintings of different beers, including at least one from every state!  After two years of Thirsty Thursday paintings, I’m ready to move on to different projects.  Stay tuned to this blog to see new paintings, and to read about my life and work as an artist in Alaska.

Only a few days until 2017!  I hope you have good beers ready to drink when the ball drops on Saturday night.  I have been saving a few special Midnight Sun Brewing beers, and look forward to popping them open on the big night.  We are in our log cabin in McCarthy, Alaska, so we will be trekking down to the cool spot known as Tony Zak’s to hang with the local crazy crew.  I heard that it can get pretty wild, and go late into the next morning.

This week’s painting is another shout out to Midnight Sun Brewing, because I’m getting ready for my art show at the brewery’s Loft on First Firkin Friday.  I’ll be kicking it off on January 6 at 5 PM by tapping a firkin of Sockeye Red IPA cast conditioned with cold brew.  I hope to see you there, if you’ll be in Anchorage.

I painted this painting to show the sun coming through the woods.  Although the sunlight looks lovely, you should guard your beer from it, and pour it in an opaque glass.  I use stainless steel pint cups when I’m not indoors.

Cheers to beers!  May your New Year be better than ever!

The original oil painting sold.  Limited-edition, signed art prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #105. Scott Clendaniel. 11″x14″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #104. December 22, 2016.

Winter Solstice was yesterday, and everybody in the Northern Hemisphere (even my uncle who lives in California) is a little relieved that we will be heading towards more daylight soon.  Although the days are short and the weather is cold, it can be really beautiful outside, if you make sure to get out during the daylight hours.  I find myself hibernating this time of year and I can’t seem to get everything done that I can during the long days of summer.  If you do get out you can be rewarded with amazing light.  The sun doesn’t get very high in the sky, creating dramatic lighting.

My favorite brewery in Anchorage, Midnight Sun Brewing, celebrates the long days of summer and the short days of winter with special beers on tap.  So I thought that an MSBC growler with the sun logo would be fitting for a Solstice painting.  This painting is also perfect for my upcoming art show at the Loft at MSBC in about two weeks.  I invite you to join us for the First Firkin Friday party on January 6th, 2017!  I need to find out what the brewers have planned for the firkin.

This original oil painting, and 52 limited-edition art prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #104 by Scott Clendaniel. MSBC Chillin, by Scott Clendaniel. 12″x24″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #103. December 15, 2016. Beer on the House.

This week’s beer-themed painting provides another opportunity for us beer nerds to learn about art history.  This painting was inspired by Marc Chagall’s The Green Violinist.  Chagall lived a long time from 1887-1985!  That’s 98 years!  Born in modern day Belarus, this Russian-French-Jewish artist experienced a whole lot of life, including the Russian Revolution, and Nazi invasion of France.  Chagall’s timing was impeccably off, being in St. Petersburg during 1917, and in France in 1940.  Fairly dangerous, especially for a Jewish artist.  

His painting of the green-faced fiddler, painted 1923-24, is probably the most famous Chagall piece, although he did work in many different mediums, including book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries, and fine art prints.  The Green Violinist is often considered the inspiration for the popular 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof.  Painted upon Chagall’s return to Paris from Russia, this piece shows his Russian Jewish roots, and his recent work as a set designer in Russia.  In this Chagall parody, I simply put the green faced fiddler in a setting that shows off a large brewery.  Just  like in a good brewery setting with live music, the musician should have drinks on the house, represented by the pint on the rooftop by this magical violinist’s feet.  Hence, the name of this piece is Beer on the House.

Cheers to finding the best music and beer!  May your holidays be festive, and may your face not be green with envy, but your coat a luxurious purple!  

This original oil painting, and 52 limited-edition, signed art prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.  

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #103 by Scott Clendaniel. Beer parody of The Green Violinist by Marc Chagall. Beer on the House, by Scott Clendaniel. 11″x14″, oil on panel.

RedBubble.com

~ by Maria Benner

Today I placed an order from RedBubble.com for two t-shirts with Scott’s beer art screen-printed on them.  Last month we were sitting at the bar at Lagunitas Brewing Co. in Petaluma, CA, and admiring the bartender’s shirt, which had Starry Night with a beer pint on it.  Scott painted a similar beer parody of Van Gogh’s famous piece, and so we decided it would be a good idea to license Scott’s paintings so they can be on shirts.  Well, after doing some research, I found RedBubble.com, a commerce site that prints artists’ works on clothing, mugs, laptop cases, clocks, and many other consumer goods.  They also handle all the shipping, and communication with customers, and we get a percentage of each sale.  The artist can set that percentage to any level, but that number affects the retail price, so it can’t be too high.  So I opened an account, and uploaded Scott’s series of famous paintings with beer.  We also created a new 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall Poster, a calendar, and a Beer Art History poster.  One of our friends in Oregon ordered the Great Beer Wave of Kanagawa shirt, and said it was high quality and the screen print looked great!  I’m looking forward to receiving our shirts in the mail!  I’m going to upload many more paintings, not just the beer-themed ones.  I’m having so much fun seeing Scott’s art on merchandise!

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #102. December 8, 2016. I Heart PBR.

I am a huge advocate for craft beer, and have taken the Beer Judge Certification Program class. So, along the way, I’ve sampled a fair share of beers brewed the hard way.  One of the BJCP lessons focused on American Lager, and the lecturer mentioned how difficult it is for Budweiser, Hamm’s, and yes, even Pabst Blue Ribbon to make a true American Lager.  During my brief stint working at the home-brew supply shop for a few months in 2006, I remember dudes coming in and asking why their home-brewed beer was not even close to their favorite macro brew.  The answer is finesse.  American brew served fresh, ice cold, and after a hard day’s work is probably one of the small joys of life that most American beer drinkers have discovered.  While most home-brew is very inconsistent, varying between batches, generating unique flavors and well, being interesting all around, macro-brewed American Lager is incredibly consistent.  Historically, the American public generally won’t stand for beer that has varying alcohol content, or surprising flavors.  Although I prefer finely crafted products, microbrews and home-brews, I value the level of expertise it takes to make huge batches of consistent American Lager beer.  It also has a nostalgic quality, bringing back memories of good times from my youth.  Although I don’t get a hallelujah experience that I might from an uber fresh dank IPA, or a spot-on barrel aged imperial stout, it has a place in my heart, and I have consumed many a PBR late around the campfire.  So, to show my love for this great American beer I made this painting and wrote this little poem.  I also entered this piece into the PBR art contest, which did not call for poetry, but hey, I get poetic around the campfire.

I HEART PBR

– by Scott Clendaniel

My heart is beating with the love of Pabst Blue Ribbon

Each pulsation of a ventricle spreads the “Love”

rugged, American, sporty, bikes, ATVs, snowmobiles, and flatbed trucks

The sensation of liquid passion stemming from my core

the unending supply of goodness that comes from communal exuberance

Taboos be dead, and habits be damned, today’s a good change

drink to your health and drink to life because tomorrow is uncertain

but the next minute is excellent as a classic PBR was just handed to you

by a new friend

let the campfire burn to coals and the warmth spread to your toes

an old friend is with you till the end

the evening which went lasted to dawn

And the pumping of your heart continues

The original oil painting sold. Limited-edition prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #102 by Scott Clendaniel. I Heart PBR. 11″x14″, oil on panel. December 8, 2016.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #101! December 1, 2016. The Birth of Beer.

This is the 101st Thirsty Thursday beer painting since the end of the Year of Beer Paintings in 2014.  Today is another installment of Beer Art History 101.  This week’s beer painting is a beer parody of Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, painted between 1484-1486.  That painting was commissioned by the Medici Family of Florence, Italy.  The painting is an attempt to recreate a lost Roman painting, and this is why the painting is not in the usual Renaissance style.  You can see stylized lines, making the painting seem more like Greco-Roman pottery and wall frescoes.  The painting of Venus rising from the sea as a full figured adult woman was inspired by the beauty of Alexander the Great’s mistress.  The original painting, as described by Pliny the Elder, was considered a masterpiece that unfortunately was damaged beyond repair.  Several of these paintings have been made, but the one we have today by Botticelli is considered the epitome of the concept.  I was thinking that the glass in my painting is full of wheat beer.  Now that Pliny the Elder has been mentioned, I am having a hard time not thinking of a West Coast IPA. Whatever its imagined style, you can say this is one beautiful beer that has arrived via clamshell.  My version of this piece is called Birth of Beer.  I would be astounded if I was at the beach and angels were blowing a beer the size of a full grown woman towards me on the beach.  Cheers to beautiful beers!

This original oil painting, and 52 limited-edition, signed art prints are for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Beer parody of the Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. The Birth of Beer by Scott Clendaniel. 14″x11″, oil on panel.