By Robin Caudell
Sketching and craft beers are twin passions of George “Speedy” Arnold of Keeseville.
He twines them in his new book, “51 Breweries I’ve Been To: Volume 1 (Because I’m An Optimist and I’m Still Thirsty) published by Amazon Publishing.
The book is armchair travel to the venues where he’s sipped and sketched in the North Country.
Arnold, an author and/or illustrator of three children’s books, contemplated his next project while perusing 70 sketchbooks, each with 100 pages, over the last 20-plus years.
In his introduction, Arnold, 68, writes:
“Not long ago, while in Vermont, my wife and I stopped at the 14th Star Brewery in St. Albans. After we had a taste, the bartender (Rene) looked at my sketch and said ‘Wow! Do you sketch every brewery that you’ve been to?’ I thought for half a second and said ‘Why yes, I do.’
“‘Then you should go over to Mill River Brewing, they just opened up a little while ago, nice place, too,’ she said. Around the block, and after another taste, I was asked “Wow! Do you sketch every brewery that you’ve been to?” A light bulb went on: time to “drink or get off the bar-stool.”
Right now, Arnold is between 20 and 30 archival ink and colored pencil sketches deep into Volume II.
When asked how long he has sketched?
“Since second-grade math class,” he said.
“I went to Plattsburgh State and took classes painting and drawing. Sold a bunch of pieces out of the store from time to time. A friend of mine wanted someone to illustrate a book of his about frogs and tadpoles, polliwogs. He asked, ‘Can you illustrate this book?’ He was going to make 20, 30 copies for his kids and grandkids, nieces and nephews. My child’s kindergarten teacher said, ‘Why don’t you find a publisher that will do this and print them up?’ He ended up selling 1,800 copies of ‘Little Brook and the Field,’ which was the first book. Then another friend that I went to grade school with had a butterfly puppet show that she was having down at her farm in Florida and had me do her book. That one sold and nominated for an award down in Florida.”
Arnold created the elephant book for his daughter, who loves them.
“I did one about the Elephant’s Head at Ausable Chasm and never looked back. I said, oh jeez, why don’t I just do a regular book about beer?”
In Volume I, two pages are devoted to each brewery.
“A little blurb about the product that they have, whether they have a food truck or music, their address and etc.,” he said.
“One of the fun things were hiding the owners and brewers names in the grass, trees or bars. Every sketch has some hidden ‘Easter eggs.’ Even somebody that might have been sitting next to me and watching me sketch. They may ask, ‘Oh, what are you doing?’
“I said, ‘I’m sketching for a brewery book. What’s your name, John? Your wife is Peggy?’ And, they made the book.”
Local vineyards and cideries have expressed interest in being sketched, too.
“I thought I would in the next edition, but I think it’s going to be 51 more breweries that I have been to. I have also filled up some interesting things like Keeseville’s first brewery down on North Ausable Street. Some sketches along the way of different places and where is this? I was going to do some sort of travel check-off list and all that, but I decided against that. People can do what they want, visit and check them. I didn’t know what to call it. Whether it was a coffee table book or a beer top book? I’ve had fun with it.”
The book is available for $25 at Arnold’s Grocery and Likker Lokker, 182, Pleasant St. (Rt. 9N), Keeseville.
