Today’s paintings are part of an exciting new project by a married couple working collaboratively on their Beer Paintings. Louie Van Patten is from Des Moines, Iowa but studied painting in Central Oregon. His wife, Cara Thayer, learned her craft at the Art Institute of Chicago, but she’s originally from Bend, Oregon, and that’s where the pair now make their home. Their regular art, showcased at The Gryllus has been exhibited in Bend and from Palo Alto to Vancouver. But being in Bend, home to Deschutes, “phenomenal beer is unavoidable and is bound to convert anyone who tries it,” as was the case with Thayer and Patten. So they decided to combine their love of good beer with their art, and the result is the newly launched Beer Paintings project. The very first painting was done for their local beer store, The Brew Shop.

They’ve also been painting bottles, cans and crowns. Here’s a representative sample below.

North Coast’s Imperial Stout Old Rasputin.

Oskar Blues’ imperial stout Ten Fidy.

A crown from Three Floyds Brewing.

I asked Patten about the beer paintings.

These beer paintings have been somewhat of a side project, with our regular, very different body of work being the paintings at The Gryllus. Craft beer has always been a huge part of our painting ritual and one of our biggest interests outside of art. We did the first painting as a gift to The Brew Shop, but we found there was something really enjoyable about merging our hobby of collecting and drinking craft beers with our full-time painting practice. There is also something we like about the idea of an un-ironic contemporary still-life, especially in the case of painting something like Oskar Blues’ Ten Fidy, with canned beers typically being derided for their aesthetics. Ultimately, these paintings are about externalizing the beer drinking experience into something that can be enjoyed when you can’t imbibe. We like the idea of giving people who are passionate about good beer another way to show it, with the dignity it deserves.

And here’s their most recent painting, featuring some more really great beers, including a few local ones to me.