(Inside A Black Apple)

Ollie Onionhead

Ollie Onionhead     9" round     Acrylic on wood plaque

Since its founding, Oddfellow's has made it a point to welcome young individuals of all stripes, which is how Ollie found a home there. More specifically, it was after a particularly insidious strain of the onion-blight known as Smudge claimed nearly every member of his family that he ended up at the orphanage gates. One might expect, with so much tragedy in his young history, that Ollie would be profoundly glum...or at least a bit cranky. Gladly, though, it is quite the opposite - perhaps because of his intimate knowledge of life's fleeting nature, Oddfellow's only Onionhead is the jolliest of all students and possesses an infectious joie de vivre.

I really love it when I can create a nice glassy effect with my varnish, especially if it contrasts with the finish on the "frame". This is part of why wood is winning me over more and more!

Ava

Before I introduce another of the Oddfellow's orphans, I'd like to say a little "Huzzah!".
Why?
Well, because yesterday marked the 4 year Etsy-versary of my little ol' Black Apple shop.
Crazy! Crazy, I say.
It has been quite a four years...it feels simultaneously like far more and far less time has passed. I wanted to plan something fun (a sale, a give-away, etc.) to celebrate with all of you lovely applets who have supported my work, read my ramblings, and nerded out with me. But since I'm knee-deep in about five big undertakings right now, it will have to be a bit belated. But I do need to say thank you for the support, readerliness, and nerding.
So, T H A N K  Y O U!

And, without further ado,  here is another little Orphan from the new collection...

Ava     11"x14"x2"    Acrylic on canvas

Ava was sent to Oddfellow's after her parents, also albino,  were fatally overrun by bandits while traveling with the unscrupulous Captain Marvelous' Sideshow. Ava escaped by pretending to be a pile of laundry, and, as she is very quiet, was quite convincing. The Headmaster himself accompanied the police to the scene, and found Ava folded up in an enormous quilt and whispering to the finches, whose cage had toppled over in the scuffle. In 1902, she was the first student to recieve the Ornithology badge, and with curiously little effort on her part. It seemed the badge-bestowing committee couldn't help but notice that birds, wild and otherwise, were always landing on her shoulders.

 

Silas

Hello!

May I present to you another fellow from Oddfellow's Orphanage:

 
Silas    8"x10"x1"   Acrylic on wooden plaque

Silas was a gardener's son, but wanted nothing to do with his father's line of work. When he was old enough, he struck out on his own and became a student at the preeminent College of Cryptozoology. After finishing his studies, he was surprised to learn that very few schools considered Unusual Zoology a necessary course of study...until he arrived at Oddfellow's. He is now the school's Professor of Sea Monsters, and is well-loved for his zippy wit, curiosity, and knowledge. He can most often found in his wondrous laboratory, though it has long been rumored that he is responsible for the mysterious and beautiful topiaries that fill the grounds at Oddfellow's. He has been spotted on more than one occasion with grass stains on the knees of his trousers.

(Also: Silas reminds us so much of John Hodgeman! This was completely unintentional on my part, but as I do love J.H., I can't say I'm sad about the resemblance)

Quite a lot of people have been asking when the Oddfellow's Update will happen, and right now I'm shooting for the end of this month, after Renegade. I'm working on some cute Oddfellow dolls right now, and finishing up still more paintings. At the end of the month, I'll also be adding all the new stuff we'll be debuting in San Francisco, so there will be lots of shop-goodness.

Happy Tuesday to you!

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.

 

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.

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.

The Headmaster

You might've noticed the new link in my left sidebar...it goes to my new online gallery for the series I'm currently working on: "Oddfellows Orphanage". Like I've done with the last few series of dolls, drawing, and paintings, all of the Oddfellow work will be kept here, all in one place...so, come update time, you'll be able to see everything together. Here is the first painting I've added (though I've got lots more Oddfellow folks to who are in various stages of completion)!

It only seemed right for the first post to be this fellow:

The Headmaster   Acrylic on vintage wood plaque   9"x12"x1"

Here we have a portrait of one Admiral Oddfellow Bluebeard, founder and headmaster of Oddfellow's Orphanage.

Through the Ordinary Forest, on the outskirts of Milkland, there stands a grand home for orphaned and wayward boys and girls, as well as other creatures in need of a roof over their head. Established in 1883 by the headmaster, Admiral Oddfellow Bluebeard, the orphanage teaches the school creed of "Friendship, Love, and Truth", as well as other necessary studies.

The series from The Black Apple is inspired by the real I.O.O.F., (Independent Order of Oddfellows), dancing bears, harlequin diamonds, signs and symbols, mysterium of all sorts, ragtime music, old-timey tap dancers, circus colors, and magic.

Nest-holder

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope that there are good weekends in store for us all. I've been so darn busy with new stuff for the shop...which is great and fun, but also a little exhausting. I might try to have a non-Black Apple weekend, but I think the thinking/sketching/designing gears will still be turnin' and so that probably won't happen.

This is a new painting that I did as a gift for my lovely Ms. A's recent birthday:

For Amy    7"x9"x1"    Acrylic on wood

She's gotten her gifts from me now, so I can show it here without spoiling anything. She has been such a dear friend and source of support since our move here, so to paraphrase Jim Croce, "I had to say I love you in a song".

Er, painting.

I'll be back on Monday with a set of a few somethings that just came back from the printers. I'm so flippin' excited about them!

See you soon!