Mark Schreiber
 
The Story of Clinton Aerial and the Original Clinton Painting
 
Clinton Aerial Limited Edition Print by Mark Schreiber
Image Size: 34" x  17"    (Paper Size: 37" x  20  9/16"    Side and Top Borders: 1  3/4"    Bottom Border: 2  9/16")
Clinton Aerial Limited Edition Print Signed and Numbered by Mark Schreiber - $275.00 (print)
  
When Robert Olds of R. J. OLDS, INC. commissioned Mark Schreiber to do a painting of the Clinton Red Mill, Mark did the below painting. Although it is a very interesting painting, it was not what Robert had in mind. Mark replied that he refused to do a painting of the Red Mill, as so many had already been painted. So, Robert asked the Clinton Fire Department if they would provide Mark with a perspective that had not been previously photographed or painted by allowing him to go 75 feet up in the air via their aerial ladder truck. This creatively new approach resulted in Mark agreeing to explore the possibilities from 75 feet above Clinton, New Jersey. The Fire Department allowed Mark to photograph the Red Mill from various locations in Clinton. This is the view agreed upon by Robert and Mark. After the painting was completed it was to be photographed in preparation to become a limited edition print. On the way to have the painting photographed, Robert stopped to show the painting to the late Mr. Pender of Clinton Canoe. While looking at the painting Mr. Pender told Robert that the island had been painted from the wrong angle. Mark had painted it from the lower left corner of the painting, as that is where he had taken the photograph he had selected as the reference for the painting. Robert called Mark telling him what Mr. Pender had said. Mark returned to Clinton to view the island from the perspective of the painting. While correcting the painting, as a thank you to Mr. Pender, Mark included the red canoes. The inclusion of several Canadian Geese is a continuation of Mark’s expression included in his original Clinton painting.

A Clinton Aerial print can be seen in the movie Turbulence. It is in the detective's office (normally the Stone Mill Gift Shop in the Hunterdon Museum of Art). During the filming in Clinton, the director told Robert he would include a framed Clinton Aerial and Boot Warmers print in the movie. That is if the Clinton Aerial print could immediately have its white matt changed to a dark brown one. A phone call to Laura Wells of Art Decor Custom Framing and Art Gallery resulted in her agreeing to do so. After the filming Karl, the then current manager of The Stone Mill Shop, retrieved and returned the framed Clinton Aeria printl to Robert. Although a copy was given to the director, he was apparently upset that he did not have the one actually used in the filming.
  
 
Clinton 1
This is the original Clinton painting. It depicts the artist's intrepetation of the past, present and future. At the time Mark painted this, Clinton had removed one of its greatest attractions: the ducks and geese. This was the result of merchants complainging about the constant reminders of there having been geese walking on the sidewalks. In this painting the artist represents the past in sepia tones. The present passing into the past is the center frame. While a man (on the right side) in the future looks into them. You will notice that some elements of the past extend into the future. These includes the legs of the man fishing on the Iron Pony Bridge. The boy is the artist's son and the man is Robert, the man who's corporation commissioned a painting of the Clinton Red Mill. In the center frame, of the present time of its being painted, the ducks and geese are walking into the past. Yet in the future they have returned. This includes several domestic geese that had been removed for being too freindly, seeking food in the pockets of people walking by.

Clinton, New Jersey's downtown streets are lined with cherry trees. Given the cooler climate in the area, they have usually bloomed during the last week of April and the first weekend of May. Now, as a result of a general warming trend, they are doing so during the last two weeks of April.

As the Clinton Aerial story above explains, this was not the painting envisioned by its patron. However, it is a very interesting one, and was accepted and paid for.
   

R. J. OLDS, INC.
P. O. Box 5239
Clinton, New Jersey 08809-0239
Robert James Helton Olds, President
908-735-5822 and 908-735-7928
Rainbow Prints - R. J. OLDS, INC. T/A