Monday, July 25, 2011

The Great Breweries of California

painting of beer caps

Like much of our other work, this painting is oil on canvas. It differs in that it is far more painterly and loosely impressionistic in construction. This painting contains crowns from what we consider the great breweries of California - North Coast, Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, The Bruery, Stone, Bear Republic, Pizza Port, Anchor, Russian River, Moylan's, and Sierra Nevada.

Oil on Canvas
16x30in
$360
SOLD

Special Request

If you bought a painting in the past, we would love to hear from you! Please comment on this post (or drop us an email) and let us know how you feel about the work you own. Thanks in advance!

New work coming soon - some a bit different from what we've done so far.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Regarding our work

Cara and I have been doing these paintings for about a year now. We've sold a lot of work and we've had the pleasure of doing a lot of commissions for people. We have been working as full-time artists for a few years now and the works on this site have been a great side-project for us.

The reality of this work is that it is not sustainable. That is to say, for the amount of time that goes into each piece, we are making a bit below minimum wage. Another reality of this work is that it is very likely that in the near future, we will no longer be producing paintings of this sort. (That said, we do plan to keep making new works at least through the end of this year.)

Despite those factors, we love doing these works as we really, truly love craft beer. We very much appreciate all of the people who have spent hard-earned money on these pieces, as they have enabled us to continue scraping by as artists for another year. While this may go without saying, this has never been a cynical attempt at making money for us. There are some fundamental contradictions in creating fine art of this sort, as we are pricing the works as low as possible, but to the average person - that "low price" is still a significant amount of money.

All of that said, it has recently come to our attention that someone is attempting to imitate our work in bulk, by farming the painting out to artists in the Philippines and offering to pay the artists what would amount to something like 50 cents an hour to create "40 to 50" paintings (see Craigslist ad here - imgur link if ad is gone). It would appear that this person saw what we are doing and saw that there was money in it, without thinking about how much work and passion was involved. We don't mind a bit of competition and if someone could do what we are doing better and cheaper, so be it. But this clearly is not that. I attempted to contact the person who posted the ad to see if I was mistaken, but received no response. It is our opinion that if these farmed-out works are produced, they would be a cynical exploitation of second-world artists and would very likely be a bad, insincere facsimile of the works we produce.

Thanks again to everyone that has supported and promoted our work, especially those that have bought and commissioned paintings to put in their home, brewery, or pub.

Cheers!
Cara & Louie

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Bell's Hopslam and Two Hearted Ale

Bells Hopslam Two Hearted beer painting

16x30in
Oil on Canvas
$360 

This is an original oil painting of the great Bell's Brewery's standard crown, along with those of Hopslam and Two Hearted. While Two Hearted and Hopslam are very different beers, they are both hop-centric and wonderfully unique examples of the IPA and DIPA. Of course, living in Oregon, we've only had these beers a handful of times - curse you lucky Michiganders! 

In any case, if you love Hopslam and Two Hearted and you are lacking home decor that combines fine art with your favorite beer, this painting is for you. We shouldn't have it in our house, because clearly we are not worthy.

As with our other beer art, this painting is on a hand-built canvas and ships with a varnished surface and a hanging wire on the back. This painting will last a lifetime, so long as you love it and don't shoot your Red Ryder at it and if you buy this painting, you will be investing in real art that shows your love for the art of craft beer. 





Monday, July 11, 2011

The Crowns of Rochefort Spray-Painting

Rochefort beer painting

Artist Grade Spray Paint on Canvas
Limited Series of Five
16x30in
$175
SOLD

This is a different breed of beer painting. While we are primarily oil painters, we started our collaborative art practice with spray paint and stencils. This piece is done from original stencils and after a series of five, those stencils will be no more.

rochefort spray paint