We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Max Savaiko. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Max below.

Alright, Max thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

When I first started, my art was very flat, it had no depth or focus. At the time I was painting whatever I wanted and brought to a local art critique group, who advised I take lessons with a local artist. I found him, and he taught in a French Atelier tradition, and to my luck he was right in my town. He taught at night, and I was working a full-time job like most artist do to survive and was able to attend at night – so it was perfect.
This was a serious class which started from scratch and re-taught me everything. We started at drawing, gray scale, color, painting etc… I studied with him for four to five years, and still didn’t complete everything.

Looking back on this and depending on your life situation, I guess you can speed up the number of lessons you take or shorten the duration of classroom learning. But to fully understand the craft of painting and art it won’t matter until you are able to ‘see’ as an artist what you are doing. To achieve this, you need to practice what you learn and hone your skill to paint and blend different color notes to create a beautiful composition.

Some obstacles I encountered where time, and persevering when it felt overwhelming, or my art wasn’t good enough. You need to have support from your family or other artists to be able to practice, learn and grow. You need perseverance to believe in what you are creating is meaningful and loved. Don’t get discouraged when you are not accepted into a contest or show. Try and figure out why and correct it or find another contest or Gallery who will accept you.
Just stick with it because it is not just a craft creating art, you are creating part of you. Keep learning as there is Marketing, photography, websites, galleries, promotions etc…and stick with it. That’s the beauty of art – it’s should never be the same thing, and it’s subjective to the viewer!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a contemporary realism artist, who creates Whiskey Art, Bourbon Art and Sports Art in oil paint on canvas. I started out just creating fruit and flower still life paintings, and I went one day to buy a bottle of wine. Leaving the store, I went up the whiskey isle and the light shown on the bottles and they lit up all amber and different shaped bottles. I took this as a message – so I had to paint them. The first one I painted sold that day and I have been refining and expanding my portfolio since.

I would say that 80% of my collectors ‘like’ the bottles I have painted, but want their favorite bottles captured. I make it a point to consult with them and try to make it personal. Maybe there is a special moment, name or date we can add. One customer made Pizza on Friday’s, and she would enjoy it with her husband. He drank a Grey Goose dirty martini with 3 olives, and she drank Whispering Angel. I painted it and created a pizza party scene adding ingredients and a pizza peeler. I the background I highlighted their name across the back of the painting. They Loved it!

I’m proud of all my paintings, but most proud of the 6 commissions I did for the Co-Owners of the Wilderness Trail Distillery in Kentucky. This is like getting your art in a museum for whiskey artist – I got to meet the owners, a personal tour and made great friends.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My Goal is to create art that I love first, and then everyone else. I don’t want to mass produce my art it is a piece of me and should have meaning and span time. I want to improve my art every day with every painting. To get my art into a museum.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Yes so Art does not pay the bills all the time it’s sad to say. So when I lost my full time job, I needed to focus on getting anther job to pay the bills and support my family. This meant putting art on the back burner and it was a few years until I could really get back into it. Even though I didn’t paint, I still read art books and composed paintings in my mind everyday. When I did get back into it is was like I never left and my paintings seemed to get better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.maxsavaikoart.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/maxsavaikoart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebourbonpainter
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-savaiko-2b9131332/
• Twitter: https://x.com/MaxSavaikox
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq7kJmLlAaKRCKmG9IlEQ_g
• Other: Pinterest:
  https://pinterest.com/Maxsavaikoart

  TicTok:
  https://tictok.com/maxsavaikoart1

Image Credits

All images are my own Max Savaiko Art