The Artwork of Brian Kliewer

"A Press Handstand" 24"x18" oil on panel © 1977 Brian Kliewer

I found this the other day and sort of flipped when I saw it.  Had no idea it was still around.  It's a painting I did when I was 14 of my first 'studio.'  Nadia Comaneci was still big in the news after the 1976 Olympics and I was working on some drawings and thought a painting would be challenging. 

The 'studio' was just an end of an inside hallway but when the door was closed, it worked out quite well for my needs at the time.  In the painting you can see the book, "Nadia," on the easel and its reflection in the glass window in the door.  On the wall in the background is a drawing of the Owls Head lighthouse, with a partial view of the painting on a table below it.  The flowers in the pot?  Don't ask, I have no idea what I was thinking on that. Below the easel a hammer rests on a block of wood and an old "Black Label" beer box was used for storing supplies.  If you look closely at the door, you might be able to spot my initials, "BK" carved into it.  I didn't actually carve them in...a little artistic license.

The painting was partly inspired by Norman Rockwell.  I remember buying a book about his work at the time, liking how he handled interior light, and wanting to see what I could do with it myself. 

The cord you see in the lower left went to my radio.  I remember listening to "Easy" by the Comodores, "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart and "Strawberry Letter 23" by The Brothers Johnson. 

Good memories. 

Untitled 10"x14" mixed media on cardboard, circa 1974 © Brian Kliewer

I stumbled across this painting earlier today.  I couldn't believe it when I found it, nor its condition.  It's actually in very good condition considering how old it is and the painting support I was using at the time.   It's one of the earliest "paintings" I've ever done.  We're talking "little league" days here.  I did this when I was about 11 or 12 years old and used the box bottom from an old board game as my painting support.  I can't remember if it was Checkers or Parcheesi...one of them. 

Looking at it now, it has a kind of "folk" art feel to it.  Most of the paint is from a 'paint by numbers' set.  But I remember wanting to do something of my own, so I took the paint and did this scene looking out from our living room window.  Even back then I had learned a few things about how paint handled.  Not long before this I did a painting of a lighthouse using both gouache and oil paints.  I kept getting angered by the white foam in my waves flaking off and never understood what I was doing wrong.  By the time of this painting, I'd figured it out.  It was too costly to keep wasting good paint! But even this ia a"mixed media" piece.  There are both oils and watercolors in it.  I just made sure not to overlap any paint that could have contradictory results.  The white building on the left is the Turner house I mentioned in an earlier post.  It tragically burned down to the ground several years later. 

As you can see, I didn't have a whole lot of self pride back then as my signature got cut off...literally.  :) Finding this again after all these  years was indeed a treat. 

This is an old drawing I did for practice.  It's based on a figure from the 1945 Norman Rockwell painting, "The War Hero."  That is a very "busy" painting, though very good.  I just wanted to try to capture the expression of the little boy.  Sorry about the poor quality of the scan, and as you can see, the drawing itself hasn't fared too well over the years, either.  Jana Botkin, one of my readers, suggested I post a drawing...so here it is.

I don't draw these days like I should.  I used to draw all the time.  Mostly I just rough in a sketch on my canvas and get into the painting.  But I've been thinking about getting back into drawing more.  Maybe I will and post some of them here or on my other blog.

What inspires you?

"School Days" 8"x6" oil on linen © 2011 Brian Kliewer

I have to say that I honestly feel this is one of the best things I've ever done.  I almost didn't want to sell it.  This painting carries  a lot of emotion with it.  As I mentioned when I first posted it, I grew up on this street.  Vivid memories are built into it....mostly good ones...but some that still haunt me to this day. I think this is one of the reasons it came out as well as it did. 

So much of who I am today came from here....these were the formative years.    I did my first "real" painting here.  I saw my first shooting star here.  My first heartbreaking crush was experienced here.  My first understanding of human death also came from here.  I went from the joy of stomping my feet in puddles to seeing my grandmother in her casket.   And it was here I remember first hearing about my cousin coming back from Vietnam after having his legs blown off.  I didn't know what that meant.  I just couldn't understand it...any of it.

Most of the memories are good ones, though.  I had the time of my life here.  I still remember my mother allowing us to stay out after 8 one evening and seeing some of the biggest snowflakes I'd ever seen.  To this day I don't think I've seen bigger.  And they were wet!  You know what that means....yes, we had one of the biggest snowball fights EVER!  It was a blast!  One girl in particular caught a very heavy snowball in the back of the head.  I'm not going to tell you who it was that  threw it.  ;)

The road in winter was never plowed all the way down the hill.  The snowplow usually stopped in front of our house, or about where the viewer is standing.  So we often had a nice large snowbank right out in front of the house.  The lower half of the road was too rocky with solid ledge, so the plows never completed a run.  They'd always come down as far as our house, stop and then back up.   I never complained because that meant excellent snow sledding!  I'd often stay out until "hot aches" developed.  Even then I didn't complain.  As soon as I'd warm up, I'd be right back outside in the snow going at it again.  Speaking of snow, I remember one winter's snowfall being so severe I was able to step over the fence out back.  I was only 6 or 7 at the time and the fence was about six feet tall.  I walked over the top of it.

There's something about those leaves...

In choosing the composition of the painting, something hit me.  I don't know if it was my subconscious at work or not but the orange tree on the right reminds me of one horrific night.  There was  a  house across the street (on the right side).  A large family used to live in it.  They had three daughters and three sons, ranging in age from about 6 - 14.   On one very snowy night I was awakened by sirens.  We no longer lived here, but on the other end of town and on the main road.  One fire truck passed and then another.  Then still another would come.  There were five or six trucks in all...all from neighboring towns.  I knew something "big" was up, but I had no idea where the fire was.  Then we got a call at about 2 AM.  It was one of our old neighbors asking us if we could hear the screams.  She thought we still lived on this road.  The Turner house was on fire!  

We got word the next day that four of the six children had died.  These were friends of mine.  They were too scared to jump out of the upstairs window, and one of the exits on the first floor had been blocked by an old refrigerator.  One of the firemen had to be turned away as a couple of the children living in the building at the time were his own.  (One of them died.  The fireman didn't live there and was, in fact, among one of the "called in" crews from out of town.)  In the painting now, I see those orange leaves as flames.  The woman who called us lived in the house you see on the left. 

I'm glad now that we weren't there to see it.  I don't know how I would have handled it. 

I can't always do it, but there are times when there are 'tears' in my paint...and I make no apologies for it.  It's these times when some of the best paintings come.

Too much information?

I believe syrup is for pancakes.  Having said that, it's often been said that we suppress our worst memories and keep our fondest.  In the painting, though not seen, the Turner house is still standing.  The neighborhood kids are in school.  We're heading into winter, my favorite time of year.  And the viewer is standing next to our front yard, where I used to play.  So this scene is sort of a "best of" from that time.   

For Cathy, Ellie, Eddie and Donny.