(Inside A Black Apple)

Summer-tastic

I'm not 100% sure what we're doing for the 4th of July...will I reprise my "People I'm happy are United Statesian" cupcakes from last year? Only time will tell. I'm actually in kind of a cookie-phase, so I might be sticking little flags in a batch of good ol' chocolate chip.

In the last week or so, we've been doing so much unusually Summer-y and festive stuff (like more than one amusement park in the course of one weekend), courtesy of Lucy B., ambassador-to-local-amusements. One of our favorite friends is moving to California, so we packed in some exciting hangouts - mini-golf, some arcading, a few picnics, and  a trip to this place, which was a highlight of 2009 for me. You can see Lucy + Ryan's photos of that enchanted day here. 

However you fellow USA-ers decide to spend your Independence Day, I hope it is happy and involves at least a sparkler or two. I'm considering  just sitting out on the porch and reading the writings of Thomas Jefferson aloud to Josiah and a pitcher of lemonade or a few beers, and call it night. That sounds like the perfect 4th to me.

A Hello and Goodbye Involving Bears

Hello there!

Two more Oddfellow's pieces to share:

Delia And Her Dancing Bears     11"x15"x1"      Acrylic on wood

One Winter evening, Admiral Oddfellow Bluebeard heard a tiny knock at the door. Upon opening it, he found a fair-haired girl scarcely bigger than a small fire hydrant - shivering, peering up at him, but saying nothing. The girl, called Delia (according to the scrap of paper pinned to her clothes), grew much taller in her time at Oddfellow's, but her hair remained white-blonde, and her eyes remained the same dark pools that first peered up at the Admiral all those years ago.  She wears the official capelet of the Society for the Care and Appreciation of Dancing Bears, as she prefers the company of the school's fur-clad denizens. She still hasn't spoken.

And here's the other...

Goodbye To The School     10.5" x 6.5" x 1"    Acrylic on vintage plaque

The day came to leave the Orphanage, and they packed her books and she donned her traveling clothes. They bundled her into one of the carriages and kissed her forehead and showered her with well-wishings, and watched as the bear and carriage and girl got smaller and smaller. And she did the only sensible thing to do - she played cat's cradle and she cried and she watched them fade from view.

 

New To + From Labels

It's been a long, long while since I've had To + From stickers/labels available in ye olde shoppe, and they're such useful little things, so I thought it was about time.
They're now available in the shop! 

I drew this little Bunny Rider scene a little while ago in my sketchbook, with the intentions of doing something along these lines with it - and I was very excited when these came back from the printer complete with all of the teensy ferns and leaves looking just right.

 
These labels are just perfect on gifts, letters, and packages alike.

Thank you for the kind words about the new paintings...there are still so many you haven't even seen yet! This series has really swept me away - in a good way, of course.

Okay, I'm going to go finish up an imaginary portrait of a sweet albino miss that I began last night so I will see you soon.
Happy Tuesday, and I hope your week is coming along nicely!

Stella

A new portrait of a denizen of Oddfellow's...this time, a pretty red-headed professor!

Stella     12"x16"x1"     Acrylic on canvas

Once an orphan at Oddfellow's herself, Stella returned to the school under mysterious circumstances. Now she is, fittingly, professor of Astronomy and also serves as advisor to the student members of the Society for the Care and Appreciation of Dancing Bears. It will come as no surprise, then, to find that her favorite constellation is Ursa Major. On clear nights, she can often be seen dragging her telescope out to the surrounding fields, as her plans for a grand observatory have, much to her dismay, gone unfunded.

New Beeswax Cards

Every time I get to design and order new business cards, I'm convinced they are my favorites yet.

I think this is a good thing - and I tend to apply this "Is-this-my-favorite-of-these-yet?" test to almost every aspect of stuff-making, picture-making, baking, and dressing too.

And I can say with utter certainty that these really are my favorite business cards yet...so they passed the test. I woke up with a fiendish migraine today, but I think I've recovered 75%. This is very good, since I'm hoping to be using my eyes a lot today, and that's pretty difficult if they're squeezed shut with my head wedged betwixt two pillows.

Happy weekend to you!

Strawberry Fields

On Monday, we went out to the wonderful, calm, restorative Sauvie Island Farms with the lady Berkley for the last of the season's strawberries.

 

Ashley blogged a couple days back about her trip out there...and I think they brought something like 20 pounds of strawberries home because the fields were so bountiful just a few weeks ago!

We had to peek under leaves and crouch and search for our berries, but the last of the harvest were so sweet and just perfect (if a little shrimpy). They were like little jewels.

 

 

But we persevered, and eventually Josiah, Lu and I had each collected a respectable harvest.

Not too shabby!
We took home enough to have some for freezing (future smoothies), jam-making, and just gobbling up.

We also took home a few enormous heads of spinach.
I'm including my feet (also enormous) for scale:

Such a good, chilly, Portland afternoon...and then we had delicious spinach and strawberries, and a day later, jam!

 

I like tart, not-too-sweet jam, and it ended up just right on that front. That's one of my favorite things about making things for yourself - you can tailor whatever it is to your exact persnickety tastes.

Happy Friday!

Hank and The Hare

Another new Oddfellow piece...

 

Hank and The Hare    10"x8"x1"    Acrylic on wood

Day and night, Hank patrols the perimeter of the orphanage, making sure that all is right and safe. This mostly entails ensuring that mischief-makers don't go hiding in trees, and that rapscallions with more devious or grave intentions don't manage to row across the moat. He's found that traveling via the rare Giant Hare is faster than by horse (and provides the element of surprise, as their paws land much more softly than hooves do).

I had Stubbs' horse paintings (which I love so much) in mind with this one. Not that I could hold a candle to the grace and fluidity of his work, but I thought it would be neat to replace that kind of romantic, dignified genre painting featuring horses and riders with a pair from my own imaginings. The paintings has gilded edges, of course (I think this whole series will...they all do so far!)

And I just have to post this...it's the prettiest (and most peculiar) thing I've seen today!

(via The Snail + The Cyclops)

I just can't believe it's a mushroom, turning into a parasol, turning into a bat, turning into a cannon(?) or some other contraption, and then finally into a team of star-lit horses! So many things I like wrapped up in an image so surreal it would make Max Ernst proud.

Two famous-artist allusions in one post! My old art professors would be so proud.
See you soon!

The Black Apple Alphabet

(EDIT: We've sold out of the 40 in the shop - Thank you so much! - and we'll have the remaining 10 available at Renegade, SF! And while we won't have any more of this edition on the watercolor stock, you haven't seen the last of the the Black Apple Alphabet!)

I'm excited to unveil this fancy little item. Actually, I've (anxiously) been waiting to share with you for the last month or so. There is so much to post about these days,  I'm just finally getting around to it!

So.
I thought it was really high time for a Black Apple alphabet-ish item, so may I present to you this  limited-edition print:

Black Apple Alphabet    8"x10"/Rounded Corners

Giclee on textured Watercolor stock     Limited-run of 50

I think this alphabet itself is a pithy, funny little thing, and I hope that lots of little people (and their corresponding big people)  will get a kick out of it! There are a few old favorite characters stuck in there, too, for good measure.

Each one is numbered and signed in the bottom-right corner.

The textured paper is quite heavy, and really lovely.

I think this print would be at home in a nice in a stripped-down, modern display, or "floating" (and highlighting the corner-rounding) in a larger, more traditional frame set-up. Here are two display ideas below! I'll leave the real decision up to you.

 

 

In the shop now!

And Happy Tuesday to you.

The Magician's Niece

The Magician's Niece   Acrylic on wood panel     8"x10.5"x1"

She once lived with her uncle, Eustice, who was the greatest magician in the land. Sadly, an incident involving a defective tea-kettle led to his untimely demise, and, having no other relations, she was sent to live at Oddfellow's Orphanage. Rather than squander her training in the magical arts, she decided it would serve her uncle's memory best to dazzle both the tall and the small with sly feats of  fantastic mystery.

Here is the plaque in its entirety, and as with all of the Oddfellow's work, it has pretty gilded edges "framing" the painting.

PS: I just spent some quality time picking + choosing a new batch of items...and the sale section of the shop has been freshly restocked!  A few of you have emailed asking how frequently I'll be doing this, and the answer is: every month or two-ish.

Daniel, Dean of Good Deeds

More Oddfellow's Orphanage work...I promise that place isn't populated entirely by fellas! It's just that the first few that were completed happened to be.

Daniel, Dean of Good Deeds      9"x12"x1"     Acrylic on wood panel

Through unwavering gentle heartedness and dutiful service, Daniel became the youngest ever student dean of Good Deeds at Oddfellow's. Since then, not a day has gone by that his badge hasn't been firmly and proudly pinned to his chest.

Happy weekend, everyone!