The Artwork of Brian Kliewer

Schoodic Point - One of My Favorite Places, Downeast

"Gulls at Schoodic Point" 24" x 30" oil on canvas © 2011 Brian Kliewer

The composition in this painting is quite different from what you see in a lot of my paintings.  The gulls were more or less in the positions  you see them in here...with minor changes.  I really wanted to show the depth of the scene.  But without a horizon line, that's not easily done.  A couple of pairs of the gulls overlap, which helps.  But mostly they exist alone.  This is why I introduced the couple in the upper left.  Yes, they were there but I hadn't decided for certain I wanted people in this painting until I had it well laid out. 

The painting isn't about "people" so I had to watch how I handled things.  It really is about the gulls.  But the couple balanced out the dark blue tide pools in the lower part of the painting, and helped balance the composition as well.  I wanted something there that wouldn't "compete" with the birds.  I think I got it.

As you can see by the picture below, I "warmed" things up quite a bit in my painting.

I took this picture  several years ago.  Gulls are really quite interesting. Bold and cautious and not unwilling to land on your head!  Yes, this one did land on this woman's head.  The photo isn't retouched.   But gulls will be bold like this if they think food is nearby.   I remember one showing up at a picnic.  It swooped in and grabbed a hotdog right off the picnic table.  Then a couple of minutes later, it came back and stole a hamburger patty!   Plenty of people around.  It didn't matter;  it wasn't "phased" at all.

Schoodic Point is a lovely place on the  coast of Maine.  It's one of my favorite spots, "Downeast." Another location right nearby is Grindstone Neck.  Check both out if you get a chance.

"Harbor Traffic"  6"x8" oil on linen © 2012 Brian Kliewer  SOLD

"Harbor Traffic" detail © 2012 Brian Kliewer

About the painting...

This lobster boat is actually one of the smaller ones I've seen.  I adjusted its size for the painting because the look with the lobsterman at the helm was unnatural.  To me he looked like a giant.  I also adjusted the angle of the boat.  Instead of coming toward the viewer, in the actual scene it was veering toward the left.  I liked this composition better.  In this particular painting, the schooner acts more as a foil than subject.  I thought about leaving the building  in the background out but it became an important element, helping to show distance. 

Everything about this composition works for me.  The wake from the lobster boat leads you to the schooner.  The  sparkling water itself tends to pull you to the schooner also. The passengers and crew onboard lead the eye up to the sail.  And the sail and boom together drop you off back at the lobster boat. 

Even more?  In the detail picture, notice how the schooner's stern and sail boom work together with the lobster boat antenna to nearly form a frame around the lobster boat.  Then there's even a "frame within a frame" as you see the lobsterman peering through the frame of the window.  It's these sorts of little nuances in a painting that spark my imagination and keep me going .

This study has all the feel of becoming a larger painting.   

This painting sold at auction here on my blog.  Auction Rules and Guidelines.  Bids are now closed, but you can leave a comment if you like. 

"Promontory, Bass Harbor Light"  24"x36" oil on canvas © Brian Kliewer

In my previous post I might have sounded like I was 'going after' other atsists for the way they portray our grand old State of Maine.  Nothing like that was meant.  A lot of the work I see does pretty well depict Maine, even if typical.  And if I were an artist from out of state with only  a few days to get what I could on canvas, I'd probably go for that look as well.  It is a beautiful place!  Sometimes I do go for that look.  Sometimes it's just the thing to do.

But like any place it has its own 'character' that isn't typically seen.   This is what I was getting at.  Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse (above) is often portrayed in both photographs  and paintings in full sunlight.  Sometimes you see it in fog.  I liked this view.  The day I was there it was overcast as I've painted it.  It has to be one of the most photographed lighthouses of all them in the state.  In my 'not so typical' view, I elected to go with almost no water in sight.   Sometimes it just gets too pretty here.  This is one reason I like to look for a different approach.  

"Off Season" 24"x36" oil on canvas © Brian Kliewer

"Off Season" was done with this in mind.    However, I'm constantly aware that I can also become cliche  even in my own work.  This is something I try to avoid.  But I don't necessarily try to buck trends just to be different.  It's really about what best expresses both my mood and the scene itself.  While I want to have my own signature style, I would never want to be a 'if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all' kind of painter. 

Being aware of these things can hold you back.  No...being an artist isn't "easy"...anywhere!  

A better title for this post might have been "Artist Or Travel Agent?"  Being an artist in Maine isn't easy.  I know many think it is.  Being an artist isn't really "easy" anywhere but I've often heard, "How lucky you are to live in such a beautfiul place!"  Well, that's true but I don't really want to work for the Maine Department of Tourism.  That's not what painting is about to me. There's a 'truth of life' that I'm after even if the scene is "pretty," and much of that scenery here in Maine is.  It's a constant struggle.  I've seen many, many landscapes and seascapes depicting the postcard nature of the state in idealized splendor.    A great many artists come here from other locales just to capture beauteous snapshots.  But I live here and have all my life.  So I know there is much, much more to it than just that.  This is what I try to put in my artwork.  The "romanticized" view isn't for me.  Even if it is a "pretty" scene, I prefer a harder edge and strive for that.

Have you ever stopped and looked at a scene, I mean really looked at it?  Watching a sloop pass by a pretty cove is one thing.  But what of the clammer who had been there at low tide in the hot noonday sun, breaking his back to dig those clams?  He was there before everything got all nice and cozy with the setting sun.  No, not a "pretty" scene but one I've come to know well over the years. 

Or what about  the beauty one sees while looking through a frost covered window?

"Ten Degrees" 4"x4" oil on linen © 2008 Brian Kliewer

The harsh, cold reality of winter doesn't always bring with it beautiful, sweeping, blue shadows over a field of sparkling snow.  But the "beauty" is still there...if you want to look.  Beauty is where you find it.  You just have to look!

Well that's my "artful thought" for the day. 

Keep painting!

"From the Stern"  30"x48" oil on canvas © 2011 Brian Kliewer

See the full Maine Windjammers series.

Over the years I've struggled with the idea of subject matter and the notion of being a "landscape artist."  I much prefer the thought of just being an artist as opposed to being locked in to any one specific genre.  To me, it's more important to paint what you know and feel or experience.  This is what I want to do most and have often tried to add that "flavor" to my work, no matter what the subject.  If I can somehow include what I was feeling at the time, then I feel I've created a successful painting.    That's what I tried to do with this painting...to push myself to a different level...a different view...and get that feeling into the work, if possible.  

This is the Maine Windjammer, "Heritage," as she's passing the Rockland Breakwater.  Another can be seen in the distance.  I had a good reference photo of the schooners on hand for a while (minus the gulls) and I knew I wanted to paint it, but wasn't sure how to approach things.  One thing I did know, the feeling it gave me was not one of  being on the breakwater but more like being on a boat myself.  However, as I was working on it, I kept thinking it looked more like a background than a finished painting.  I wasn't sure I wanted to do anything to it, or how it would work as a "background."  I just knew it felt like one. 

Pushing things...

The more the painting developed, the more everything was weighted to the left.  I needed something for the rght side and then it hit me to add the gulls.  I've thought of "overlaying" a subject in the past but had never tried it before...at least not to this extent.  It was risky.  I resisted doing it for a few days.   Compositionally it was a challenge anyway, and then coming back and adding seagulls in a painting where they were not originally planned really turned up the heat at the easel!  Then I thought to  myself..."how can I tell others to do something bold if I wasn't willing to try it myself?"   So I did..

Viewer as subject...

The seagulls  "smell" food.  They aren't interested in the schooners but are swarming around YOU, the viewer.   As I worked on the painting, I kept thinking of a "sternman" on a lobster/fishing boat.   This would be his view.  The schooners are passing by as the gulls go into a frenzy behind the boat, which is out of view here.  I did it this way because I wanted to put the vewer into the boat....to bring the viewer into the painting.  So in that sense, the viewer is the subject!  

An "orchestrated chaos"  

Working out the composition, deciding where to place the gulls became sort of a game...a chess match.  It  was challenging and I was constantly concerned about overdoing it.  But at the same time, I knew that's what the gulls would do as they flew about, overlapping each other and obliterating views...  

So I wanted at least some of that in the painting, though not a complete "visual cacophony".  Instead, I opted for more of a ballet or dance structure in the compositional rythm.  I tried to set up a rhythm...thinking of a pattern that might resemble notes on a sheet of music. From that approach, I got this "waltz in the air" effect...   

(Also in this view you can see the schooner crew - and some of its passengers, I believe -  hoisting the "pushboat" into its storage position behind the ship.  And... yes, that wing on the right was in this upright position.  So I chose to place this particular gull here to keep the action onboard the schooner unobstructed.)

But one of the things I love most about this kind of action is the view, the "window" the gulls often create with their wings, legs and feet.  There's almost a perfectly framed window that you see the distant schooner through...

How did I get the gulls to pose?  

After coming up with the idea to add seagulls to the painting, I  searched for images  on the web. I knew that this was indeed the direction I wanted to go... the painting just needed direction and the seagulls added that.  So I went to the beach and took a couple of loaves of bread with me. After about 10-15 minutes, I had over 100 photos.  But that wasn't enough since I still wasn't getting the views I wanted.  The winds the first day were quite strong, and the gulls were positioned mostly at angles that didn't work for me.  So I went again the following day.  Two more loaves were gone in about 10 minutes.  So they devoured four loaves of bread in a total of about 30 minutes. But for those four loaves, I had about 50-60 models posing in all sorts of positions.  I got the "frenzy" I was looking for.   It was a great experience and I hope to do it again someday...

In the end, I didn't really paint one of those seagull "frenzies" but perhaps the beginning of one.  The gulls are coming toegther rather than obliterating the view.   If you've ever seen a lobster boat under "attack," then you know what I mean.   As I was tossing those pieces of bread into the air, I got that experience in a nearly full blown level...I was able to"re-create" it.   The gulls were going crazy.  It was more of a melee than a "waltz."  Hmm, do I see another "envelope" to push? 

Keep painting!

Bye!