Kitchen Art | Big Red Two Bottles | Betsy Crum
Crum Art
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Big Red, Two Bottles — Red Wall Art by Betsy Crum
Betsy painted the same bottle twice and only committed to one of them. The left-hand Big Red is the real thing, stoplight red straight through. Its partner is drawn in the same lines but drained nearly to white, like the second pull off a screen that's run out of ink. The mint green behind them is worn and slightly dirty, the way a cooler door looks after eleven summers.
The two-bottle setup is the oldest trick in pop art and still the best one: repeat a thing, change one variable, and the object stops being a soda and starts being a subject. Here the variable is saturation, and the effect is that your eye keeps sliding left, then correcting, then sliding left again.
As red wall art it is about as direct as the category gets. Red is the loudest color you can put on a wall, and mint green is one of the few grounds that will hold it without either one backing down — they sit near opposite corners of the color wheel, so the red stays red instead of going pink or going muddy. That's why the print reads as roadside Americana rather than as decor: worn paint, saturated logo, no apology.
Big Red itself was mixed up in Waco in 1937 by Grover C. Thomsen and R.H. Roark, and for its first couple of decades it went by Sun Tang Red Cream Soda — a name nobody was ever going to shout across a gas station. Somebody sensibly shortened it to what people already called it.
Where It'll Work in Your House
Kitchen, first and obviously — over the coffee maker, beside the refrigerator, on the wall above wherever the good glasses end up. The washed-out mint is calm enough to hang against white cabinets without a fight, and the red is loud enough to run a breakfast nook by itself. It's steady kitchen wall art and it earns a place over a bar cart, where a red bottle has never needed an excuse.
It also plays well with family. The single bottle on butter yellow is its natural running mate, the Warhol-style grid is what happens when you stop counting, and the BIG RED DIST. rooftop under a Waco sky is the one that tells you where all of it came from.
Questions
Why is one bottle almost white? On purpose. It's the ghost impression — same drawing, no ink behind it. It gives the pair depth without anybody having to paint a shadow, and it's the detail people ask about first.
What was Big Red called originally? Sun Tang Red Cream Soda, from 1937 on. The current name started as what customers said at the counter and eventually won.
Will it fight with a kitchen that already has red in it? Not usually. Because the ground is mint and the second bottle is nearly white, only about a quarter of the print is actually red — it registers as a red piece from across the room while behaving like a soft one up close.
Who made it? Betsy Crum. She painted this pair the way she paints signs and skies — flat, exact, and quietly amused. Original artwork, printed to order, and the rest of it lives in the Betsy Crum collection.
Waco has produced two internationally famous soft drinks and this is the one the rest of the country still hasn't caught on to, which suits Waco fine. The town's other landmarks are in Waco art prints, and every other bottle, can, and cooler shelf we've painted is lined up in Drink Up, Texas.
Fine Art Prints Made in Fort Worth, Texas
Since 1996, Crum Art has created original art, paintings, and fine art prints in Fort Worth, showing and selling work at hundreds of art shows across Texas.
Crum Art brings a distinct Texas and Western point of view to specific, meaningful images: pop art color, cowboys, cowgirls, animals, kittens, vintage signs, bluebonnets, humor, grit, and Lone Star nostalgia.
These are not mass-produced prints or generic wall decor. They are artist-made pieces with a Texas point of view, created for homes that feel collected, lived-in, and full of meaning.
Each print is produced to gallery-quality fine art standards, made to order in our Fort Worth studio, carefully inspected, and hand-signed by the artist. Every piece passes through our hands before it becomes part of your home.
Print Details
- Archival pigment inks on 100% cotton rag paper
- Unframed and sized to fit standard frames
- Studio-made, artist-signed prints only available directly from Crum Art
Made in Texas.
Frequently Asked Questions
What sizes does this print come in?
Our fine art prints are available in multiple sizes including 8x10 unframed matted to 11x14, 11x14 unframed, 16x20, 18x24, and 24x36. Each size ships ready to frame, making it easy to find the right fit for your wall.
Is this print good for a western or ranch-style living room?
Absolutely. Crum Art prints work beautifully in western living rooms, ranch house walls, and collected interiors. The editorial quality and distinct Texas point of view make them strong anchor pieces for a rustic western or Lone Star-inspired home.
How is this print made and what materials are used?
Every Crum Art print is produced on 100% cotton rag paper using archival pigment inks — the same standard used in fine art galleries. Built to last without fading, and hand-signed by the artist before it leaves our Fort Worth studio.
Can this print be part of a gallery wall?
Yes — many Crum Art prints are part of series and are designed to group together as a statement western gallery wall, or hang individually as a standalone piece. Each image is sized to fit standard frames for easy styling.
Will this look like an original painting or a print?
Crum Art takes the scanning and photographing of original paintings seriously — we work to capture the texture of the canvas or paper the original was created on, so that texture shows through in the print. Combined with the cotton rag paper's own subtle surface and the hand-signing, many customers say they cannot tell if it's an original or a print. That's intentional. These are not flat digital reproductions — they are fine art prints that carry the soul of the original.
Made with love. Signed by hand. Shipped with care. Hung with joy.
Product FAQ
Where did Big Red soda come from?
Waco, Texas, in 1937. Grover C. Thomsen and R.H. Roark put it together, and for its first couple of decades it was sold under the name Sun Tang Red Cream Soda.
Why is the second bottle so pale?
It is painted as a ghost impression — the identical drawing with the color pulled almost all the way out. The pair gets its depth from that contrast rather than from any painted shadow.
What color is the background?
A soft, worn mint green, deliberately weathered so it sits somewhere between a vintage cooler door and an old painted wall.
Who painted the two bottles?
Betsy Crum, working in Texas, who has worked her way through a good deal of the Texas beverage aisle by now. Original family artwork, printed to order.