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.

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Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #73, May 19, 2016, Grapefruit Sculpin by Ballast Point Brewing Co.

The painting for this week’s Thirsty Thursday is of a beer known as the Grapefruit Sculpin by Ballast Point Brewing in San Diego.  The brewery started distributing to Alaska just a couple weeks ago, and Alaskan craft beer enthusiasts welcomed the beer with open arms and wallets.

Germans have been flavoring their beer with lemonade and lemon-lime sodas for many decades, making a product called radler bier (cyclist beer), or a shandy.  Leave it to the West Coast Americans to make a beer that tastes like candy but hits hard with a 7% kick and serious hop character.  The lesson is learned, don’t feed this one to your wine-cooler swilling friends.  It sounds like they will like it, but save this one for yourself, you alpha-loving hophead.  Grapefruit and beer sounds like a terrible, mad dog beverage invented to get 16 year old high-schoolers drunk, but it’s actually a match made in heaven.  The twangy bitter-sweetness of the citrus fruit pairs perfectly with the 70 IBUs of Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA.  As Ballast Point’s marketing department declares, “Grapefruit is a winter fruit, but Grapefruit Sculpin tastes like summer!”  Cheers to innovative craft breweries!  Hoppy American Craft Beer week!

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

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #73 by Scott Clendaniel. May 19, 2016. Grapefruit Sculpin by Ballast Point Brewing Co. 8″x10″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #70, April 28, 2016

I’m calling this painting Light Struck.  A glass full of beer looks so amazing in direct sunlight, but unfortunately the UV light causes catastrophic changes to your beer.  Have you ever opened a green, or clear glass bottle of beer that stank like a skunk?  Of course, your beer is past its prime, but how did it get like that?  Sunlight caused it, and don’t think that beer packaged in brown glass is immune.  It’s just a little better than the complete lack of protection from green, or clear glass vessels.  In just one minute of direct sunlight, in a few minutes through a window, or in a few days under a fluorescent lightbulb the flavor is changed chemically.  Hop molecules called isohumulones start to break down, bonding with sulfur molecules, and creating a chemical similar to the spray from a skunk.  Even one part per trillion of this chemical will ruin a beer.  Germans invented the beer stein, an opaque, clay drinking vessel with a metal lid.  This vessel, although originally designed to keep black-plague-carrying flies out of beer, also protects from light contamination.  If you are planning on sipping your suds in a direct sun environment, a steel pint glass with a coaster on top should work as well.  Maybe drinking that IPA directly from the can is a good idea.  Better keep it cool too, add a koozie!   Cheers to the beauty of beer!

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

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #70 by Scott Clendaniel. Light-Struck. April 28, 2016. 14″x11″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #68, April 14, 2016

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) painted the Luncheon of the Boating Party in 1880-81, when he was 40 years old.  It is a large canvas, 51 x 68 inches.  My beer-infused version is only 11 x 14 inches, but I feel it still captures the essence of the original composition.  I call this piece the Tasting of the Beer Party!  The guests are sampling some sought-after beers: Spotted Cow, Heady Topper, Pliny the Elder, The Abyss, Bourbon County Stout, and 120 Minute IPA.

I have always enjoyed Renoir’s paintings.  When I was 12 years old my grandmother gave me a picture book of his paintings and I have always worked to be as proficient a painter as Renoir, setting quite a high standard for myself.  You can always recognize a Renoir painting, because it is the ideal Impressionist work incorporating the human figure.  Monet painted in a very similar style, but rarely depicted as many people.  It is also very inspirational to see a painter who was not only successful, but painted party scenes for a long full life.  Renoir was nearly 80 years old when he passed.  He was lucky enough to walk through the Louvre in 1919 and see his paintings hanging on the same walls as ones of the old masters!  I hope you enjoy this parody of one of the best paintings of art history, and we should all hope we all live as long and full lives as Pierre-Auguste Renoir!

The original oil painting sold, but I released 52 limited-edition prints. You can purchase prints, or order a custom original oil painting at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #68 by Scott Clendaniel. Inspired by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. April 14, 2016. Tasting of the Beer Party. 14″x11″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #67, April 7, 2016

Happy Thirsty Thursday on National Beer Day!  And, today is also my birthday!  April 7 was a great day in 1933 when beer became legal again after 13 years. Home brewing didn’t become legal until 1978, which is ironic, because home brewing is essentially the way beer was invented some 7,000 years ago.

This week’s Thirsty Thursday beer painting is a parody of Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa. This was the first of 36 paintings of Mt. Fuji that Hokusai produced from 1830-1833.  In my version I portrayed the boats as glasses of pilsner floating in a wave of dark beer I presume to be porter, or stout.  This wave of beer reminds me of a carboy incident I had while home brewing back in 2006.  Little to say, I have new bamboo flooring on the living room side of my kitchen counter as a result.  I call my version of this painting The Great Beer Wave.

I hope you spend National Beer Day home brewing, or at least pause from your busy schedule for a needed beer break!  In celebration of National Beer Day coinciding with Thirsty Thursday and my birthday I’m having a 15% sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.  Use coupon code BEER2016.  Valid today only!

The original oil painting sold. You can purchase limited-edition prints, or order a custom beer painting at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #67 by Scott Clendaniel. April 7, 2016. The Great Beer Wave. 14″x11″, oil on panel.

 

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #66, March 31, 2016

Last Saturday, after an excellent ski day, we headed to Anchorage Brewing Company for Orval Day!  If there is one thing I love about Anchorage Brewing Company, aside from its world-class beer, it’s the events that are held at its new location.  Culmination Beer Fest is incredible, and Zwanze Day was special.  Thanks Gabe Fletcher for bringing us such awesome festivities to our hometown!  I was about the 101^st person in line at Orval Day, which meant that the person ahead of me got the last Orval glass.  Luckily, Gabe had an extra one in the back, and since he is a supporter of the beer arts he made a special effort to make sure I received the correct vessel for this special libation!  The monks at Orval have perfected their beer recipe.  Not too sour, nor too hoppy, or too sweet, or too high in alcohol.  Brewed with Belgian candied sugar, dry-hopped, dosed with Brettanomyces, and brewed by Trappist Monks who know what they are doing, makes this a special beer indeed.  Demand is high for this Abbey-made brew.  The monks produce 2 million gallons a year, and although that is not enough to satisfy the world’s demand for this tasty ale, the monks say they are not brewing a drop more.  They say that they are an Abbey first and brewery second, and if they increased production the brewery would take over the monastery.  The other amazing thing at Orval Day was the Orval cheese also made by the Trappist monks.  This cheese is not distributed outside of Belgium, France, or Holland. Orval Cheese is a Plateau cheese, and is soft and mild with an incredible hand-washed rind.  Let me say it goes well with the beer!  Anchorage Brewing Company was packed with beer loving Anchoragites.  It seemed like everybody in the beer community was there.  A wonderful day!  Thanks Orval for putting so much love into your fine brew and cheese!

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

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #66 by Scott Clendaniel. March 31, 2016. Orval Trappist Ale. 11″x14″, oil on panel.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #62, March 3, 2016, Java Cask by Victory Brewing Co.

The featured beer for today’s Thirsty Thursday project is by Victory Brewing Company, known as the Java Cask.  I’ve had almost every barrel-aged beer that Victory has produced, but the Java Cask is hands down the best barrel-aged offering I’ve had from Victory!  It tastes like coffee beans making sweet music that was designed to be tasted and not heard.  This stout is brewed with JB’s Coffee, so I created an image that incorporates Johnny Brenda’s restaurant, but modified the scene to show coffee beans singing to the barrels in the audience.  All I can say about this 14.3% bourbon barrel-aged beauty is that it is phenomenal.  If you have an opportunity to get your hands on this treat of a beer, you will find that it makes music to your tastebuds!  Cheers to Victory’s barrel aging program!  The Java Cask is a masterpiece of the brewing art.

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

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #62 by Scott Clendaniel. March 3, 2016. Java Cask by Victory Brewing Co. 11″x14″, oil on panel.

 

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #60, February 18, 2016, Feast Label for Midnight Sun Brewing Co.

Not often does a visual artist get to brew a beer in a commercial brewery.  I was lucky enough to get to do just that!  When my home-brewing buddy Chris Hilliard became the Chef for the Loft at Midnight Sun Brewing Company he told me he was going to see what he could do to get into the brewery and brew a beer.  I told him that was a dream of mine as well and that I would like to join him.  Another dream of mine was to do the artwork for a beer label.  Many people have asked me which beer labels I have designed, and I have had to say the only beer labels I am responsible for are my home-brew labels, which I normally get rushed on as fewer than fifty bottles of beer hardly warrant much of my time.  Home-brew is gone before anyone really takes the time to look at the label.  Nor does it qualify as a commercial beer label.  Chris went to bat for me and not only got me into the brewery to brew a beer with him on the big brew kettle at MSBC, but he also got the marketing crew to let me make a painting that would be the label design.  The beer, which is called Feast, due to the recipe being created by Chef Chris, is a traditional German dopplebock aged in whiskey barrels.  It is not a small beer, being around 7.0-7.5% ABV.  Dopplebock has been referred to as liquid bread, which brings to mind monks drinking beer during Lenten fasts.  We discussed all kinds of names and different images I could use for the label, but the marketing team decided to go with Feast, and I thought that it would be cool to put a bunch of Alaskan animals all around a big table at a huge feast.  The animals represent the MSBC staff members as well as some of the regulars at the Loft (I like to think of myself as the mountain goat).  I included images of the food you can eat at the Loft as well, in homage to Chris’ culinary skills.  All in all, this label took me way longer than I thought it would, but I think it turned out better than I had hoped.  The images in this post are of the original painting without any textual graphics, and the mock up of the label, which is subject to change due to the fact that it has not been fully approved by the marketing staff.  I hope this will be the first of many label designs.  I do love working with breweries.  Cheers to the Feast!  Act like a monk and drink your meal!  The tentative release date is in April.

The original oil painting will be up for auction at the Loft when the beer is released.  I am releasing 52 limited-edition fine art prints of this painting, which are available for sale at my Etsy shop RealArtIsBetter.

Thirsty Thursday Beer Painting #60 by Scott Clendaniel. February 18, 2016. Painting for a Beer Label Design for Feast Dopplebock by Midnight Sun Brewing Co. 19″x24″, oil on panel.

Feast Dopplebock Label Mockup. First Draft.

Year of Beer Paintings – Day 96

The beer painting of the day is of Breakfast Stout by Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan (my late grandmother’s birth place)!  Brewed with coffee, this is a nice, early-in-the-day beer.  I try to stay away from caffeine after 4 PM, because I find it harder to sleep.  I portrayed this one as part of a complete breakfast, since beer is made from cereal grains.  I put a full American breakfast in the background with taters and bacon and eggs, even a slice of melon on the side!  An unbalanced beer, balanced by a great breakfast.  What could be finer?  If you are relaxing at home, entertaining yourself by catching up on your R & R, this is a perfect Sunday afternoon brew! Roasted grains and coffee are the strongest flavors.  There is a sour twinge that is typical in a dry stout, but in this beer, it is more pronounced by the coffee bitterness.  I know that IBUs can be calculated from bitter grains, as well as hops, but dark beers don’t take on the floral characteristics as well as lighter brews do.  Dry hopped, light colored IPAs will have more of a floral hop aroma, kind of like dark vs. light roast coffee.  Thanks, Rich, for putting this one in the mailer for me!  We don’t get Founders beer here in Alaska.  One of the best parts about this project has been getting to try new beers that I normally would not have had. Cheers to Founders!  I’m glad I found out about the Breakfast Stout!  A fine heart warming dark ale!

The original painting sold. You can purchase a limited-edition print at my Etsy Shop.

View the complete Year of Beer Paintings gallery.

Year of Beer 04.06. Breakfast Stout by Founders Brewing Co. Oil on panel, 8″x10″.