Study for "Down to the Sea" oil on canvas  ©1993 Brian Kliewer

Painted on location in 1993, Plein Aire style from the cliffs at Owls Head Light. The cliff has since been blocked off to all visitors. A dangerous spot, to be sure...but a beautiful one!  The following poem is planned to go with the painting, "Precipice," a larger version of the above study for "Down to the Sea."

Precipice

I felt the pull, the lull of her gaze
and knew this would be the end of my days
But by the sweetness of her lips, I was won.

The beautiful blues lavished against my heart
pulling me toward the edge I had not before known
her tireless motion, her angry spark has weakened my resistance...

How could I not know this beauty in the most intimate way?
Her deviltry calls me forth.  Should I listen?  Should I care?
Her depths would only bring despair.

Rage of want!  Desperation of not knowing. How can I resist?
Her whispers are music to me.

Azure skin tones, her beauty is my cure
Her languid movement intoxicates me.
As I slip under her spell, she extinguishes my fiery torment...

Did I fall? Or did she pull me over the precipice?

© 2010 Brian Kliewer


Over the years I have painted many, many scenes and sold hundreds of pieces of artwork. I've enjoyed my life as an artist. Still, I truly must confess that a nagging question has lingered. What if you have things hidden deeply within but don't express them?  Or, what if you follow the course of having others decide what you should or should not paint? As an artist I feel the need to grow...to explore.  To be a corporate minion is, frankly, for corporate minions...of which I am not.

I've always been an emotional person.  I can cry...very deeply at times.   No, ladies, you do not live alone in that world.  You have a friend here.  And I can be unbending and stoic as well.  But it's true...I know the emotional side very well.  So the question is, how can I express these emotions with simple landscape alone?  I honestly don't feel that I can.  Don't get me wrong, landscapes can be deeply emotional and I still intend to paint them.  But as a human living on this planet, I know the inner landscapes of the mind and heart that can only be portrayed through other emotional beings like myself.  I am human and... I wish to speak to you.

I recently told a friend that Study for "Shadows" (below) is a departure for me.  Well, it really isn't...but more of an awakening or an epiphany, if you will.  




Study for "Shadows," 6 x 8" oil on linen © 2009 Brian Kliewer

Sometimes exquisite beauty is seen best through eyes that have known exquisite pain.  The kind of pain that comes through years of searching and longing....aching...can decipher what truly felt beauty is.  There is a beautiful sadness that cannot be explained - only painted. To know this kind  and to share it, to me, requires more than just landscapes alone.  How can love, joy, anger, or sorrow be expressed through an unpeopled landscape?  I need more to show these sorts of things as... I wish to speak to you.

Art, to me, involves more than mere decoration. It's my soul. It's who I am as a person. It's my struggle to remain sane in a world filled with insanity.  It's my plea to those who would prefer not to notice to do so. It's my conversation with those who already do.  And in the end, it's a baring of my deepest self. 

So, with all of this in mind, I'd like to say that it is my goal to paint in a more unfiltered, unrestrained manner and express more emotion through my work than I ever have before. More figures, even nudes, are planned as well as more poetry when I feel the urge to write.  I hope you enjoy the additions coming to my work and my site because, I truly do wish to speak to you. 

Anyone that's been following my Art Studies blog knows that it's mostly about my small paintings.  Well, this blog is going to be about my large studio paintings.  In addition, I'll be giving details about where and when these new works can be seen in person.