Chiefs Kingdom

The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII (for those of you who are not so good with roman numerals), that is Super Bowl 57 in 2023.  I am sad for all my friends who are Eagles supporters, but maybe they can win again at another time.  Instead, we celebrate the KC’s victory with a painting of the Kansas City Chiefs on their home turf, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. 

Where were you when the Super Bowl was on television? I know that one of my friends was at the game. I bet a lot of you boycotted this pillar of American culture and went outside to do something interesting like skiing, skating, or fat-biking.  I used to do that: watch about 15 minutes of the game, catch the halftime show, eat a plate of nachos, some wings, chips, and whatever, then go outside and do something fun.  But now I like watching the game. In fact, I watched almost all the playoff games and a lot of the Monday, Thursday, and Sunday regular season games.  I don’t follow any specific team, but normally root for good football. I like to watch the athletes do amazing things, and I like the sound of the crowd getting all excited about the sport. I do enjoy the commercials during the Super Bowl and the halftime show. My favorite halftime show was Lady Gaga in 2017.  There have been so many good shows, it is hard to remember them all.  

This year I was on a roadtrip to visit my grandma and my uncle in eastern Washington. I spent Saturday in Walla Walla, Washington with my grandma, she is 90 years old! We then drove to Pullman, to visit my 96-year-old uncle.  My uncle was hosting a party for the Super Bowl and had invited over three other guests. The food was good and the excitement was there! I was most happy that the game was close and not boring. The Super Bowl menu at my uncle’s party included: ribs, potato salad, baked beans, potato chips, and a superb tray cake for desert.  We were all skiers, so the cake celebrated that sport. It was a pretty good spread. 

I had a lot of discussion about which beer to put in this painting. I thought maybe a Boulevard Brewing beer, but I saw that most people drank Goose Island IPA at GEHA Field.  So, I thought I should leave it up to imagination.  You have whatever beer you want, and I put it in a Kansas City Chiefs cup that you would get at the stadium. 

Both teams were very good this year and it was a great show. The Eagles played very hard, but Coach, Andy Reid, played it super cool running down the clock and putting it all on the line as Harrison Butker nailed the field goal with only 8 seconds left on the clock. Making it virtually impossible for the Eagles to comeback.  Raise your glass not only to the KC Chiefs, but to the great sport of American Football! Cheers!   

This original oil painting, and signed prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Chiefs Kingdom, 14″x11″, oil on panel

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Montucky Cold Snacks Beer Painting

Montucky Cold Snacks is a light and refreshing beer, just like a good “adventure” beer should be.  For this painting I imagined three white horses prancing around a Montana ranch, while a cool farm hand stands watching by the property’s fence, sipping on a Cold Snacks at the end of a long day of ranchin’.  It is this type of dream of Montana that inspired this beer to be made, and inspired me to paint this composition.

I love a good, cold, American-style lager. It is the perfect beer for after a long, hard, sweat-filled workday, or a grueling play day.  I would drink it on a box, I would drink it with a fox. I would drink it here, I would drink it there! Basically, I could drink Montucky Cold Snacks anywhere! The cool thing about this beer, is the brewery donates 8% of its profits back to local causes.  Remember, the first two are for hydration. 

The original oil painting, and signed prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Montucky Cold Snacks Beer Painting by Scott Clendaniel. 11″x14″, oil on panel.

 

Rainier Bear 2.0

In 2016 I was inspired by a news story to paint one of my most popular beer paintings, called Rainier Bear. In addition to selling the original oil painting, I had also released 52 limited-edition prints of the image. I sold the original, and all 52 prints. This is only the second time I’ve sold out of a limited-edition run! Now that all 52 are sold, I won’t sell that image as a signed print again (stickers are available though). So, I decided to paint a new version of this bear, because I just really like him, and Rainier beer is so iconic to me, since I was born in Washington. So, here you have it, Rainier Bear 2.0!

Cheers to these cute trouble-makers!

This original oil painting, and signed fine-art prints are available at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Rainier Bear 2.0, 14″x11″, oil on panel by Scott Clendaniel

“Oh Geez, Rick!” – Morty

“Oh Geez, Rick”,  is a painting I made because I am a home-brewer and a huge fan of the show Rick and Morty.  Every home-brewer loves to brew in the garage. Since I don’t have one, I decided to pretend to have the most amazing garage ever, Rick’s garage from the show.  Every time I make a batch of beer, I pitch the yeast into a big glass fermenter like the one pictured here in Rick’s garage laboratory.  I always think about the life that is being cultivated inside the glass universe in the carboy.  Sealed with an airlock to keep the culture clean, it reminds me of our planet.  We are like the yeast, and the wort (unfermented beer) is like our natural resources.  As the yeast bubbles, and ferments the wort into beer, it is like our planet living out its days.  Once in a while I will double down on a batch of beer and pour fresh wort into the leftover yeast slurry from a previous batch. When I do this, I think how awesome it would be if we were able to buy more time for humanity on planet Earth by just brewing up some more clean air, water, and sunlight.  

The lifespan of any life-form is limited by its resources.  So my question is: if the planet is like a beer fermenter and the garage is like space outside our universe, is there some giant being that wants to eat all our garbage and breath our CO2 to catch a relaxing buzz?  Rick would know, he probably was teasing it with his portal gun.  

Cheers to life! Although it may be fleeting, make sure it is a fun ride!

This original oil painting, and signed art prints are available at my Etsy shop. You can see this painting in person at my art show at Midnight Sun Brewing Co. June 4 – July 1, 2021. I will kick off the show this Friday at 5pm by tapping a pin (small keg) of a wit beer with key-lime, cask-conditioned on Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla beans and graham crackers!

“Oh geez, Rick!” 11″ x 14″, oil on panel

Pelican Brewing in Pacific City, Oregon

During my college days, studying art at Western Oregon University, located in Monmouth, Oregon, I spent a lot of time at the local bike shop.  The shop was really cool! Located in a former gas station, it barely had enough space inside to store all the bikes.  It was called Jon’s Bicycle Station. I met Jon the first day I arrived in Monmouth.  The town wasn’t really that big, and I was, and still am, bicycle crazy.  We became great friends!  The shop was so cool, because Jon made it that way.  Since he worked 6 days a week, and home-brewed every Sunday, we would ride every Tuesday at nighttime. We used powerful headlamps to go way up into the mountains, then turn them off and gaze at the stars. The rides were great, sometimes 23 miles long, and often just Jon and I.  We would always meet at the shop, do a quick tune to the bikes, then have espressos, and load the bikes into his old 1970’s Ford F-250, driving a few miles to the logging area on the east side of the coastal range. After the ride Jon pulled out homemade burritos from an insulated cooler where he kept them warm.  These were my favorite times in the Willamette Valley area.  

My grandmother is from Newberg, Oregon, just up Route 99W from Monmouth. When I was a child, the whole family would often fly down from Alaska to meet up with the rest of the clan at the Oregon coast for a family get-together. We would normally stay in a rental house at Rockaway Beach, so I was no stranger to the Oregon coast. I think it is a really beautiful place on this planet! When Jon invited me to go to Pacific City to ride bikes and celebrate New Years Eve in a big rental house, I jumped at the chance. He would always get these incredible houses and invite all his riding buddies. Since I was a broke college student he didn’t ask much from me. I just had to show up and go for long road rides on Highway 101. Afterwards we would go to the Pelican Brewing brewpub. One time for spring break, Jon got this amazing house directly on the beach in Pacific City. It had a hot tub and a sauna, and 17 beds! The bunk room was impressive, with two levels of stacked beds with room for everyone. My roommate at the time brought his girlfriend’s whole family! We filled that house! I remember running to the ocean from the hot tub — it was so awesome! The Pelican Brewing brewpub was only about 1/2 mile down the beach from that house. Back in the day, the brewery only bottled beers in bombers. I remember buying as many as I could afford and taking them back for a big beach fire party! I did a couple of paintings at that house. The place was called the Wind Jammer on the rental listings. I don’t know if you can still rent it, but I do recommend getting some Pelican beers and walking down the beach!

Nowadays, the Pelican has a production facility in Tillamook, and the beers come in huge cans, six-packs, and still a few 22oz bombers.  It’s not quite the same, but my love for Pacific City is still strong.  If you happen to be in the area, the Grateful Bread Bakery is a good breakfast place, just get there early, as the cinnamon buns are all gone if you sleep in!  Haystack Rock, and  Cape Kiwanda Dune are really cool local geological features making this place stand out!  I heard the surfing is as good as Oregon has to offer.

Cheers to Pacific City, The Pelican Brewpub, Jon’s Bicycle Station, and the Oregon Coast! You don’t have to go to Hawaii to have a great time on the beach!

This original oil painting, and signed prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Pelican Brewing IPA, 11″x14″, oil on panel

Giants Baseball Game at AT&T Stadium

Before the pandemic, going to a baseball game in a crowded stadium was possible. We used to also have weddings, and sometimes we even left our home state to go places.  I went to a wedding in California to see my cousin get hitched back in 2017. Then we went to an amazing baseball game at Oracle Park (a.k.a AT&T Stadium) in San Francisco. I bought myself a Giants ball cap from a street vendor and my uncle had procured tickets for the whole family.  My brother-in-law, and sister met us for pre-game beers at a local brewery called Cellarmaker.  I always wait until the 7th inning stretch to buy a beer at a ball park, because they are kind of expensive. I can milk the abnormally large beer for the rest of the game, even if it goes into extra innings. I think I paid about $20 for my 20 oz beer, so that’s $1 per oz.  This is not a particularly good price, but the selection was excellent. Lagunitas, Anchor, and 21st Amendment were available back when I was there. The Internet tells me that Local Brewing, and Russian River are on the menu now, or will be when we are all allowed back in the park.  We had a great time, and I was really impressed when foul balls went into the Bay, and when gulls were dive bombing for hotdogs.  The Giants didn’t win that game, but everyone wins with a 20oz brew and great live entertainment in the sun.  I hope you get to go to your favorite ball park soon! I have a good feeling the 2022 baseball season will be closer to normal.  In the meantime, buy the cardboard cutout for yourself, and make sure you have a beer in your hand to show how much fun you are having!

Cheers to getting back to normal, and in the meantime, live abnormally well, when you can!

This original oil painting, and signed prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Beer at a Giants Baseball Game at AT&T Stadium. 11″x14″, oil on panel, framed.

Maria and I stoked about seeing a Giants game!

Natty Light Naturdays

Natty-McNatty-Naturdays!  I had a few of these strawberry-lemonade-light-lager-shandies when a friend brought them up to our cabin.  Very refreshing and a nice lower ABV option to swill between double IPAs and imperial stouts.  I love the pink can with the flamingo motif, which is why I chose to put this can in the Flamingo Hotel’s Flamingo Habitat in Las Vegas.  It actually is a pretty good version of a shandy, not as sweet as you might imagine.  For that matter, regular Natural Light is okay, just do me a favor and don’t ever buy the Natural ICE, it tastes like acetone.  Cheers to friends, pink cans of beer, and the love of Saturday!  Get natural this weekend and have a Naturdays!

This original oil painting, and limited-edition prints are available at my Etsy shop.

Natural Light Naturdays. 8″x10″, oil on panel. By Scott Clendaniel.

Paintings Commissioned for Holiday Gifts 2019

Each year several thoughtful gift-givers commission me to paint custom oil paintings for holiday gifts, and so far I’ve always finished them all on schedule to be delivered several days before December 25th.  This year most of the paintings were dog portraits, and sadly two of those were of loved pups that had recently gone to doggy heaven.  No one ordered a cat painting.  Hmmmm.  One person really liked one of my existing float plane paintings, but wanted a smaller version, so I painted one for him.  I’m always impressed with the concepts that my patrons develop for these pieces, and my favorite part is finding out the stories behind each one.  I hope all the recipients liked their gifts.  I did receive a couple photos of smiling people holding their custom Clendaniel originals.

Click on each one to see it in more detail.  All paintings are framed in a natural wood frame, with hanging hardware installed.  The turnaround time is 2-3 weeks.  You can order a custom oil painting at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter, or by contacting me at info [at] realartisbetter [dot] com.

Epic Day! 14″ x 11″, oil on panel.

Alaskan winter cabin scene. 14″ x 11″, oil on panel.

RIP little buddy! 8″ x 10″, oil on panel.

Sally dog on the rafting trip. 8″ x 10″, oil on panel.

Smaller version of Catch & Release. 24″ x 12″, oil on panel.

Spotted Cow billboard. 16″ x 16″, oil on panel.

Packers game on the porch. 16″ x 16″, oil on panel.

Don’t Hang Your Beer Paintings in the Bathroom!

We often hear of masterpieces getting stolen from museums, but how often have you heard about a painting getting stolen from a brewery’s bathroom?  Well, in Anchorage, it happened twice, and both times the paintings were Clendaniel originals!  I’m flattered just a little, but mostly very disappointed with these people’s choices, or maybe just one person’s.

When I was doing the Year of Beer project, Gabe Fletcher, the owner of Anchorage Brewing Co., purchased a few beer paintings, and when he built his new brewery, he hung a painting in each bathroom.  Then one day, the painting from the men’s room was gone!  It was of Calabaza Boreal, a collaboration brew by Anchorage Brewing and Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales.  It was a hard piece to make, because it had two different incarnations and I depicted both bottles in the painting.  Gabe put out a plea for the thief to hang the art back on the wall, and no questions would be asked.  The painting hasn’t been seen since.  Gabe bought another painting from me of the Experiment, to replace that one, but he didn’t hang it in the bathroom.

Fast forward a couple years, and the thief strikes again!  Maybe it was a different person.  We don’t know.  This time the scene of the crime was the bathroom at Odd Man Rush Brewing Co. in Eagle River.  Last year I painted a piece live in the taproom, and one of the owners purchased it, and hung it in one of the unisex bathrooms.  Several months later, the painting mysteriously disappeared.  Ironically, the beer painting was of the Enforcer IPA.

So the lesson is, don’t hang your 8″x10″ Clendaniel beer art in public bathrooms at your drinking establishment!  I don’t have a problem with the location, I like having my artwork displayed basically anywhere, as long as it is visible to people.  The problem I have with public restrooms is that people seem to believe the artwork on the walls is a free gift.

After hearing that the piece was yanked, I contacted the owners of Odd Man Rush, and set up a date to paint a new one at the brewery.  I completed this painting last Sunday of Enforcer IPA, while sipping on a couple delicious brews, including the NEIPA, and when I was done painting the glass and the beer, I got to drink the Enforcer while painting the background.

The new painting to replace the one that was stolen.

If you see either one of those stolen paintings, please grab it back for the rightful owners.  If you would like to return the stolen pieces, because you made a bad decision while you were a little tipsy, just put them back in the bathrooms, no questions asked.

Cheers to honesty!  Please don’t steal art, just contact me, and I’ll paint your favorite beer… no questions asked.

Beer Painting of Solid Gold Premium Lager by Founders Brewing Co.

Solid Gold — ice cold!  I don’t know if I can call this the holy grail of beers, that distinction is reserved for barrel aged brews with an ABV over 10%.  The Solid Gold Premium Lager by Founders Brewing Co. in Michigan is way better than any other beer you can buy at this price point.  When I get done doing yard work here at our log cabin in McCarthy, Alaska, I don’t want a whale of a beer to quench my thirst and ice my aching hands.  I‘m looking for a traditional American premium lager, something that is thirst-quenching and not too strong for the after workday libation.  The first one goes down in about 10 minutes and that’s if I try to sip and savor.  If I were to start with something stronger, I might have a good time, but won’t be good for much, except rolling around in the moss giggling to myself.  This lager tastes as good as any premium Mexican lager, but at a much lower price point.  

Founders opened its doors in 1997 right about the time craft beer was still called microbrew, and discerning Americans were still drinking wine.  In 1997 ice beer was all the rage, and thank the heavens that Founders started to show the world that beer can be classy, should be drank from a glass, and should be valued rather than looked down upon.  I say if you are a macro domestic lager fan and are tired of supporting the Clydesdale of brewing, give Solid Gold a try.  A win-win — stay a bit less drunk and keep some extra money in your pocket.  Your friends will thank you at the next backyard bbq, when you show up with a case of the SG when they can still drive home after dominating the corn hole pitch.  A perfect brew for pong or any game that requires dexterity.  Try new beers, but keep drinking this premium lager as new brews are silver but this one is Solid Gold!

This original oil painting, and limited-edition prints are available at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Solid Gold Premium Lager by Founders Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″, by Scott Clendaniel.