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Beer In Art #58: Randy Dillon’s Beer Bottles

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art-beer
Today’s works of art is by a young Texas ex-marine, who chose to serve his country before pursuing a career in art. Randy Dillon spent six years in the military and was stationed in the Middle East during Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom before returning to his art studies at the University of North Texas. He’s recently painted several beer-themed paintings, the first of which is below. Called Six Bottles of Beer and was painted with acrylics just a few months ago, in August 2009.

Dillon_Six-Bottles-of-Beer

And here are several more of his recent paintings, all beer-themed in some fashion.

Dillon_King-Holding-Beer
King Holding Bottle of Beer wearing Bluetooth Headset, painted in July 2009.

Dillon_Beer-Bottle
Beer Bottle, painted in late July 2009.

Dillon_Man-Holding-Beer
Man Holding Beer, painted in October 2009.

Dillon_Bottle-of-Beer
Bottle of Beer, painted in January of this year.

Dillon_bottles
Bottles, painted in July 2008. I love the colors and the simplicity in this one, quite possibly my favorite of Dillon’s bottle work.

You can see much more of his artwork at his own gallery and also his online store and his Flickr Photostream.

Beer In Ads #11: Schlitz Just Couldn’t Wait

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ad-billboard
Today’s ad was chosen with Christmas is mind. It’s a Schlitz ad from 1950 and it was created by famed illustrator Albert Dorne.

I love the story unfolding in the ad. The guy is pouring the beer while peering mischievously up at the clock, which reads just a few minutes to midnight. Presumably that means they’re putting up their tree Christmas Eve at the very end of the day. Talk about procrastinators! But then there’s the look on the woman — doing all the work, as usual, right ladies? — who looks aghast at the effrontery. Or is that bemusement? Surprise? Hard to say. But it’s pretty funny, I’d say.

Anyway, drink up. Happy Xmas Eve.

schlitz-life-12-25-1950
If you can’t read the text, either click on the ad for a larger view or read the transcription below.

Just Couldn’t Wait

When a man’s Christmas present is a case of Schlitz, who can blame him if he opens it a little early?

This great beer has a matchless flavor all its own. We think you’ll like Schlitz best, too. And if you’re looking for a present for someone hard to please, remember…Schlitz tastes so good to so many people, it’s

The Largest-Selling Beer in America

Beer In Art #57: Kelly Murphy’s Wassailing

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art-beer
After a few more mature works recently, today’s work of art is more playful and child-like. It’s by Kelly Murphy, who primarily write and illustrates children’s books, along with freelance work in similar fields, like toys and film. In 2007, on her blog, Murphy shared her work, Wassailing.

Kelly_Murphy-wassail

Wassailing is, of course, a traditional English and European custom that took place around the holidays, sometime around Christmas and in other traditions into mid-January. To read more about it, there are interesting accounts at the Hymns and Carols of Christmas, About.com, Time Travel Britain and White Dragon.

There also the drink Wassail, which I wrote about a couple of years ago after the release of Full Sail’s Wassail at Here We Go a-WASSAIL-ing

As for Kelly Murphy, here’s some more info from her biography.

Kelly Murphy is an award-winning illustrator and animator working predominantly with traditional and mixed media. Born and raised in southeastern Massachusetts, USA, she studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. Since earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999, Kelly has been actively freelancing across the various fields of editorial illustration, picture books and poster illustration as well as character design for both the film and toy industry. An accomplished children’s book author and illustrator, Kelly’s books have been published by America’s leading publishing houses and her tenth children book is already due to be available in the Fall of 2009.

And there’s a good overview of her other illustration, art and books at her website and her blog, Who the Sh*t Drank My Beer.

Beer In Art Special: Lefebvre’s Chloe

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art-beer
This Saturday edition of my Beer In Art series is a little different, which is why I’ve decided to call it a series “Special.” The work of art itself does not depict beer but its story is inseparably connected to beer. Thanks to Australian Bulletin reader Geoff (Thanks, Geoff!) who sent me the story of Chloe, a painting in search of a home, who finally found it in a Melbourne pub, the Young & Jackson.

The work was painted by the famous French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre in 1875, and it’s title is Chloé

Lefebvre-Chloe

The painting quickly won Lefebvre fame and numerous awards including “gold medals in the Paris Salon in 1875, the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879 and the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880.”

But the story of the painting was far from over. Here Doomed Damsels picks up the story:

In 1883, after three weeks of exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, scandalized citizens objected to this unseemly display of the naked female form and Chloe disappeared from public view until 1908, when she was purchased by Henry Figsby Young, an ex-digger turned hotel proprietor, for £800, a very large sum in those days. Henry took the painting back to his home above Young and Jackson’s Hotel and his outraged wife banished it to the public bar, where it charms the patrons to this day.

The fate of Chloe’s model, a young Parisian artist’s model named Marie, did not, sadly, have a happy ending. Little is known about Marie, “except she was approximately 19 years of age at the time of painting. Roughly two years later, Marie, after throwing a party for friends, boiled a potion of poisonous matches” (made at the time with phosphorous) — drank the concoction and died. The reason for her suicide is thought to be unrequited love. Some accounts speculate that she had a love affair with Lefebvre which he ended, others say she developed a crush that he refused, while still others suggest that “he seduced both her and her sister.” There are various stories about Chloe — the painting and the girl — at Australian Beers, the BBC’s h2g2 and at Young & Jackson’s website.

In 1973, John Larkins wrote of Chloe in Australian Pubs. “[D]ear Chloe, soft and naked, withholding nothing and temptingly virginal.” And beer historian Rafal Zakrzewski wrote in 2001, “Sweet things do not go well with a bitter Aussie lager — Chloe is an exception.”

Young&Jackson-inside

Young & Jackson’s is one of Melbourne’s oldest pubs, having opened in 1861, though it’s only been known by its present name since 1875, when new buyers, Henry Young and Thomas Jackson, bought it. You can read about the history of Young & Jacksn’s at Wikipedia or the Chicago Bar Project.

Young&Jackson-Melbourne
Outside the Young & Jackson, in Melbourne, Australia.

You can also see more of Lefebvre’s art at Jukes Joseph Lefebvre: The Complete Works, and also at ArtMagick.

In addition, to serving local and imported beers, the Young & Jackson also has a beer contracted for them in honor of Chloe. The beer is called Naked Ale.

Young&Jackson-naked-ale

Beer In Ads #10: Boris Vallejo’s Michelob Man

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ad-billboard
Today’s ad was painted by one of the most famous science fiction/fantasy artists of all time, Boris Vallejo. If you don’t know who he he is, then you’ve never read the genre, because he’s worked for nearly everybody and has also done a number of album covers. His most famous characters include Conan, Doc Savage and Tarzan.

According to the biography at his home page:

Born in Lima, Peru, Boris attended the National School of Fine Arts in his native country before immigrating to the United States in 1964. He has since done a great volume of work for the Fantasy field, having worked for virtually every major publishing house with a science fiction/fantasy line. Boris has also illustrated for album covers, video box art and motion picture advertising.

You can also see a lot of his art at his official website (along with his wife, artist Julie Bell) and chronologically at the Boris Vallejo Gallery.

If I had to guess, I’d say this may have been for something internal at A-B because notice that the man in the painting, who may or may not be August Busch III, is crushing a can of Heineken, undoubtedly a primary target of Michelob’s marketing efforts. There’s also a strange triangular-shaped object between the two beers that resembles a Toblerone package, but I can’t figure what that might be. Anybody have any ideas?

Boris_Valejo-michelob

Brookston Beer Quiz #1

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quiz-can
Here is the first of what will most likely be many beer quizzes. I’ll probably do a new one every few weeks. I have tons of similar graphics I’ve been collecting for another project and figured I’d put them to good use in the meantime.

This first one is pretty easy, though I think having multiple choice answers makes them all easier. For each question you’ll be show the first letter of a brewery or beer brand’s name from their logo or label and you have to identify which one it is. Good luck. Let me know how you did.

Beer In Art #56: Mark Blanton’s Bohemia Pin-Up

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art-beer
This Sunday’s work of art is decidedly adult in nature, as much art often is, and is by Mark Blanton. Blanton is a modern artist, a hyper-realist it appears, and also has done a series of pin-up art, which he “created as a tribute to the Sixties’ art movement known as Pop Art and the work of Pop artist Mel Ramos, Pin-up artists Alberto Vargas and George Petty.” The highlighted work today, featuring Bohemia beer, is channeling Mel Ramos so much that for a long time I actually thought it was by Ramos.

Blanton_Mark-Bohemia

Looking through Ramos’ oeuvre revealed, as expected, many, many paintings of nude women with a commercial product of similar size, a pop art style that Ramos pioneered. But as many different variations as Ramos painted, I could not find one featuring a beer. You can see his work at Modernism, Art History, or the Ro Gallery .

Not finding it among Ramos’ works, I started looking elsewhere to identify it eventually finding Mark Blanton, many of whose works are strikingly similar to Ramos.

Given the obvious phallic symbolism of a beer bottle it seems strange that Ramos never did a painting with beer, although he did paint one with a wine bottle. Luckily, Blanton stepped in to fill the void.

You can also see more of Blanton’s Ramos-inspired pin-ups at his website, and also at Pin Up and Cartoon Girls and at the History of Pin Up Art.

Beer In Ads #9: Regal Pale Skiing

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ad-billboard
Today’s ad is most likely from the 1950s or early 60s, and is for Regal Pale Ale, a beer that was at least distributed in California as late as the 1960s, though I’m not sure where it was brewed and I can’t find my copy of American Breweries II under the mess that is my office. It’s been cold this week, not frozen tundra cold or even Pennsylvania-cold, but it has been California-cold with the kids delighting in seeing frost on the ground and watching me scrape ice off the car windows. That means ski weather, so I thought this ad of a skiing beer can cleverly using other beer paraphernalia to complete the picture was appropriate. I wonder what they considered the other great American beer?

Coincidentally, New Jersey’s legendary Heavyweight Brewing used the name Regal Pale Ale for the first of their OneTimeOnePlace (OTOP) series back in 2003.

regal-pale-ale

Beer In Art #55: Gregg Hinlicky’s Brewer Portraits

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art-beer
Today’s works of art are part of a larger project undertaken by New Jersey illustrator Gregg Hinlicky. A decade ago, he began an undertaking to paint portraits of his favorite brewers.

Hinlicky-garret_oliver
Garret Oliver, from Brooklyn Brewery.

The original ten paintings were quite large, averaging seven-feet tall, whereas later portraits are three-feet by four, which has allowed him to speed up and increase output.

Hinlicky-John_Maier
John Maier, from Rogue.

The goal for Hinlicky it to paint at least thirty brewer portraits with an eye toward ultimately publishing a book of the portraits.

Hinlicky-Fritz_Maytag
Fritz Maytag, from Anchor Brewery.

Hinlicky attended the Newark School of Fine & Industrial Art and held several design and marketing positions before joining D&R Communications, which has been his day job for over seven years.

Hinlicky-henry
I’m not sure what brewery this is, but the painting’s titled “Henry.”

I particularly like this peek inside an unnamed brewery.

Hinlicky-Climax_10th
It looks like he’s also done the logo for Climax Brewing, shown here on the label for their 10th Anniversary Ale.

Hinlicky does sell his work and takes commissions, too. If interested, you can contact him through his website.

Paintings used with the permission of the artist. All works © Gregg Hinlicky.

Puttin’ Up The Brookston Xmas Tree

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christmas
My favorite parts of celebrating the holiday season all involve the originally pagan rites like the mistletoe, the yule log, exchanging gifts and, of course, the Christmas tree. We got our tree last night and decorated it this morning. My mother was somewhat obsessed with Christmas, and did a completely different tree theme every year, often making all the ornaments herself. She’d also buy a few ornaments every year and add them to a box for me and, when she passed away in 1981, I inherited all of the ornaments. I’ve continued the tradition of buying new ornaments every year, though I don’t have a whole new tree each year. Instead, the family looks through the boxes and boxes of ornaments and we choose the ones that catch our fancy each year to create our decorated tree. Many of the ornaments reflect our passions, so Porter has train ornaments and Alice has princesses. Over the years I’ve amassed ornaments of some of my peculiar fetishes, such as globes, clothespins, snowmen, birds, potatoes, bowling pins, the Packers and, of course, beer. So this morning I took a photo of each of my beer ornaments, which are presented below in he slideshow. Hoppy Christmas.

Beer: A 6-Pack

Below is a slideshow of my beer-themed Christmas ornaments. This Flickr gallery is best viewed in full screen. To view it that way, after clicking on the arrow in the center to start the slideshow, click on the button on the bottom right with the four arrows pointing outward on it, to see the photos in glorious full screen. Once in full screen slideshow mode, click on “Show Info” to identify each photo.