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Beer In Ads Special Edition: John Ireland’s The Gentle Art of Making Guinness

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guinness-white
In honor of labor day, here’s a fun series of illustrations showing all the labor necessary to make beer, in this case Guinness. In 1981, Guinness commissioned British illustrator and artist John Ireland to create twelve paintings whimsically depicting the steps that go into making Guinness beer for a calendar.

From the Guinness Collector’s Club website:

John was born on the 19th March 1949 at Aldershot Hants and attended Farnham Grammar school, Farnham Art School and finally Ravensbourne College of Art and Design. He lived and worked in London from 1971 until moving to Norfolk in 1976. John has two sons, two sheep, a dog and a wife Tessa and has worked as a freelance illustrator since leaving college, principally for magazines and publishing, with a little bit of advertising. In recent years. A lot of his work has involved caricatures including collections of sporting personalities and a weekly drawing for the TV Times for over nine years.

John [Ireland] writes:

“I had been asked a few years prior to 1980 to submit ideas for a Guinness Calendar but nothing came of it, and when I was asked to produce roughs for a W. Heath Robinson pastiche I was initially reluctant, suggesting I could do something in my own style. When it became obvious that they – J.Walter Thompson the advertising agency — were set on doing it their way, I decided that it was better I should do it rather than someone else mess it up and do Heath Robinson a disservice.”

“There were similarities in our styles, which is presumably why I had been asked in the first place. I had been interested in his drawings since I was a child, having bought his books at jumble sales. The whole job went amazingly smoothly and following a guided tour of the Park Royal Brewery, it was left up to me to decide on which elements of production I should highlight.”

“This is so unusual for advertising, normally you are presented with layouts that you have to stick to rigidly and all the copy has been written already. In this instance I even wrote the captions. My initial roughs were accepted with hardly any changes suggested. I only had to make the May drawing a little busier and ensure that wherever possible both bottled and keg beer should be depicted as apparently there was intense rivalry between the two divisions of the company. The barman in the December drawing is actually a portrait of Heath Robinson with his cat ‘Saturday Morning’ and the customer is my Father.”

Blogger Phil Beard, at his Notes on the Visual Arts and Popular Culture, also has a nice post on the series. These days John Ireland is best known for his caricatures.

John Ireland’s The Gentle Art of Making Guinness

January: Hop Picking Time in the Guinness Fields
Ireland-01-Jan-Hop-Picking-Time

February: Early Morning on the Guinness Farm
Ireland-02-Feb-Early-Morning-on-the-Farm

March: Industry in the Guinness Maltings
Ireland-03-Mar-Industry-in-the-Maltings

April: Roasting the Guinness Barley
Ireland-04-Apr-Roasting-the-Barley

May: Mixing the Guinness Mash
Ireland-05-May-Mixing-the-Mash

June: Filtering the Guinness Wort
Ireland-06-Jun-Filtering-the-Wort

July: Fermenting the Guinness
Ireland-07-Jul-Fermenting-the-G

August: Bottling the Guinness
Ireland-08-Aug-Bottling-the-G

September: Signing the Day’s Production of Guinness
Ireland-09-Sep-Signing-the-Days-Prod-of-G

October: The Training of the Guinness Quality Testers
Ireland-10-Oct-Training-of-Quality-Testers

November: Delivering the Guinness
Ireland-11-Nov-Delivering-the-G

December: The First Guinness of the Day
Ireland-12-Dec-1st-G-of-the-Day

Guinness Ad #32: The 1953 Coronation

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Our 32nd Guinness poster by John Gilroy was a one-off for a specific event, the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

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The zookeeper is shown holding up a bench — presumably made possible from drinking a Guinness — with four of the animals used in various Guinness ads over the years, all waving British flags. There’s no text at all, but I assume everyone would have understood it at the time.

Guinness Ad #29: Horsing Around Again

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guinness-toucan
Our 29th Guinness poster by John Gilroy is, I think, also part of the zoo animal series and features a horse drinking the ringmaster’s Guinness with the slogan “My Goodness — My Guinness.” I’m sorry to say this is the largest version of the ad I could find. If anyone has a larger one, please be kind enough to share it with me.

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Beer In Art #85: John Skelton’s Guinness

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art-beer
Today’s works of art are by John Skelton, an Irish artist who passed away last year, in 2009. Born in 1925, Skelton studied art in Belfast, Northern Ireland and later at St. Martins School of Art, London, where he began his career in the 1940s. The first painting of Skelton’s I stumbled upon is not part of the works featured in his online gallery, it’s title is Aran Pintmen. There’s a Guinness sign above a half dozen lads at the bar drinking their pints of Guinness that reads “Guinness Is Good For You” in Gaelic.

John_Skelton-aran_pintmen

Here is the Guinness painting. Below is a larger version in a frame on a wall.

John_Skelton-guinness_lg

Several other of his paintings were also set in Irish pubs

John_Skelton-donegal_man-killibegs
Donegal Man. Killibegs, Co. Donegal, from 1999.

John_Skelton-a_corner_in_a_kerry_pub
A Corner In A Kerry Pub, from 2001.

John_Skelton-a_drink_with_brendan
A Drink With Brendan, from 2001.

To see more of Skelton’s work, check out his paintings at Osin Gallery, where you can also read his biography. The artist’s son Michael is also setting up a new website, John Skelton Online, to honor his father’s memory and his legacy.