capturing the craft of wine & spirits

Joan Chamberlain

I paint in acrylics from my dining room in Eugene, Oregon. I have a dedicated studio downstairs, but it doesn’t have a view of my backyard and the various critters who come by daily. I need to feed and visit with the wild turkeys, scold the deer for eating my flowers, laugh at the squirrels, and watch the birds bathe and eat at my feeders.

My dining room is where the light pours in and plays with the ever-changing arrangement of spirits bottles that I keep on my bar. The sun shines through a high window in the morning, giving me a dramatic spotlight for dazzling reflections and deep shadows. In the evening, it comes in at an angle creating warm, inviting patterns from the beautiful colors of the bottles.

I came to a painting career later in life, after spending most of my working years as a dentist in Dallas, Texas. Throughout my dental career I also painted murals and did work as a freelance illustrator. I eschewed formal art classes because the few classes that I took seemed too rule-bound. I grew up in the authoritarian, patriarchal 50’s and 60’s. I’ve had enough of being told what to do.

That’s not to say that I wasn’t influenced by many talented artists, one of which was my father. I inherited his fine motor skills and started creating very early in life.

My current body of work started innocently enough when I noticed the dramatic shadows cast by a wine bottle and glasses as my husband and I finished eating outside one evening. I liked the way the shadow of the green glass bottle looked like an undulating creature crawling across the rumpled tablecloth.

I mostly painted compositions featuring wine bottles and glasses until one outdoor art show where several men asked “Where’s the whiskey?” or “Where’s the gin?” I didn’t need convincing - those bottles offer endless variety in shape and color and are some of the most beautiful bottles I’ve ever seen, so I started painting liquor bottles and never looked back.

I now jokingly declare wine as my “gateway art,” preferring the beauty and variety of bottles from the whiskey and fine spirits world. Do you have to be a heavy drinker to enjoy a painting of whiskey bottles? No, you only have to find beauty in the way light plays across the bottles, highlighting their color and form.