Whew!! It is muggy outside. You would think it was June all over again. It just started raining and you can hear the drops hitting the beech and pawpaw leaves.

Local Cincinnati designer and birdwatcher, Jill Baker, paid the studio a visit yesterday to show off her new leg. Jill had the top of her new prosthesis covered in Charley Harper birds. We had been hearing about this for a couple of months and were glad to have her visit the studio to show it off. Jill said the last thing she would see before surgeries on her leg at Cincinnati Children's Hospital were Charley Harper's bird's that decorated the hospital walls. Wow. Thanks for sharing that with us Jilly! Be sure to say hi to her at some of the bird shows around the country.

OK, time to get back to work and prep for being at SF20, San Francisco's 20th Century Modernism Show and Sale this weekend!

Another Show this weekend!!

Not only are we showing original Charley Harper works in San Francisco's SF20 next weekend, we will also be at the Midwest Bird Symposium, in Lakeside, OH this weekend! We know a bunch of you are bigtime bird watchers, so hopefully you'll stop by the Charley Harper Art Studio booth and say hi to Rena. Be nice to her, please. She makes good things happen here at the studio.
The Symposium runs from September 17th thru the 20th. That's means you shouldn't be reading this!! You should be in Lakeside, OH!!


There are more shows coming up in November and things are hopping here in Cincinnati.
It was even a little bit brisk this morning. Time for your fall gardens. Garlic, cabbage, onions.... bird migrations will be soon. The owl was hooting at us in the middle of the day. Really. he just hangs out around here. That has to be good luck.


Also, check out Jim Hughes great blog piece on Charley Harper and his works in The Golden Book of Biology. Check out the volcano!! Wouldn't that look sweet on your wall? Splashes of volcanic paint smoke blotch blasted in to a glass palette sky. Oily fire fire seperating from a grey liquid crystal smoke billowing in a flow like ice against the black of night's window.. Its not yet for sale, but wouldn't it make a really great print? We here at the studio think so. Thanks, Jim!! You can also follow Jim at Twitter. We do! And he follows us! Woo hoo!!

Original Works to be Shown and Sold

Come visit us next weekend in San Francisco at SF20:
San Francisco 20th Century Modernism Show & Sale

september 24-27, 2009
herbst pavilion at fort mason center

open to the public - show hours
friday & saturday: 11am - 7pm
sunday: noon - 5pm

admission $15 - includes show catalog and re-entry

featuring 50 premier national and international exhibitors presenting decorative and fine arts from all design movements of the 20th century.

Twitter and Pics!!

The pawpaws are getting ripe for picking here. The studio is surrounded by pawpaw trees and we have a pawpaw pie in the fridge with some butter pecan ice cream in the freezer to top it with. Mmmmmmm. Just can't leave it on the counter or one of the cats will have themselves a snack!

As you can see by the title of this blog, the Charley Harper Art Studio has joined the technological revolution and you can now follow all the up-to-date happenings of ours at http://twitter.com/CharleyHarper.

Check out Drake Brodahl's blog and homage to Charley Harper. http://pumml.blogspot.com/2009/08/quail-run.html

And check out the studio's very own Sandy Crouse hanging out with retro hip cool cat artist,Shag, at the Denver Modernism show. Apparently, Shag is a big fan of Charley's, and owns almost all of Charley's fish imagery!! Check out Shag's own work at http://www.shag.com.

And here she is again with Charles Phoenix, the slice-of-Americana slide show man, himself. Wow, those two are a pair. if you stare long enough at both of their outfits together you may begin to realize deeper truths about the universe. Or you'll just go cross-eyed. http://www.charlesphoenix.com/

All in all, Sandy said that the Denver Modernism show was a grand success, with lots of Charley Harper fans stopping by and cleaning out our stop of lithographs and calendars. Thank you all very much. And a special hello to the dog that made off with poor Sandy's breakfast while she was trying to get some work done. Bad dog! But how could anyone stay mad at a face like that? Look at those eyes!

Quilts, Ford Times, and Thursday

We just finished digitizing all the Ford Times articles and images in which Charley was involved with. Keep an eye out here on the blog for digital reprints of those to peruse from time to time. Truly a treausury of great Americana. Articles about ramp eating, singing festival, birds, and much more.

The preview show of the lost Charley Harper Ford Times original pieces closed in August at Fabulous Frames & Art, in Montgomery, OH. Check out a slide show of all the work displayed here. Harpertrove on Squidoo has a really great write-up about the featured works and reactions by the family and studio. Give it a read and leave a comment!

The studio would like to thank Ms. Sharon Phelps for stopping by and showing us her original quilted rendition of "Twoowls". We've had a good number of people ask if quilt patterns of Charley's works are available. The answer to that is the Charley Harper estate does not have licensed quilt patterns available. We encourage you to make your own and share them with each other and us! Send us pictures of your Charley Harper creations! Ms. Phelps says that she would gladly share her own pattern with anyone that is interested. please contact the studio and we will put you in touch with her.

As we encourage you to create your own quilt patterns, Charley Harper cross stitch patterns are available from Pat Rogers' Counted Collection. Charley Harper needlepoint patterns are available from Treglown Designs. Please purchase from these retailers or create your own. There are bootleg versions out there. Even if they are of decent quality, none of the sales of such go to the support of the Charley Harper family and estate.

Now some quick trivia!! Did you know that it was the Ford Times' Art Director, Arthur Lougee, that got Charley to start painting birds?

In an effort to share some behind the scenes of the Charley Harper Art Studio, let's take a moment out of each blog to list a title from the vast reference library here. Today's title is Water, Prey, and Game Birds of North America. This is a National Geographic Society book by Alexander Wetmore loaded with many full color photos and drawings. If you saw the copy here, you would realize what a valuable resource this was and how much it used!

New Print Available!

Hello world!! A limited number of giclee's of Charley Harper's mixed media collage "Tree of Life" are now currently available on the Charley Harper Art Studio website.
These beautiful pieces host a menagerie of wildlife from elephants to oak leaves to earthworms. Just check out the background print of the blog!!
Each giclee is a 21" x 24" image on a 25" x 28" sheet and are studio stamped and numbered. Artist proofs are available.

Excitement!!

Shagtastic!

Blog's been down for a bit. Technology is a fickle thing.

Its been hopping this summer at the studio. The mice have been raiding the birdseed. One jumped right on out of the refill bucket!

The Habitat Skateboard show at the Contemporary Art Center, in Cincinnati, was a fun success! It was something else seeing parents share their memories of Charley Harper's artwork with their kids and then see them boogie down to the DJ in front of the artwork.

Btw, Charley Harper Art Studio has been featured on the English design blog, Delicious Industries. Hope our British friends come see the artwork up close when it shows on the other side of the pond in 2010!


Just got back from a fun time at the Denver Modernism show. First person on the mailing list was Shag! Good stuff!!

More later with pictures!!!!