Two months in photos.

Yes, yes. I have been away from the spotlight for a while now. Don't think that I have been twiddling my thumbs. My life's a busy and fun one! I am about to head to the beautiful city of providence in Rhode Island for this year's illustration conference, ICON7. I'm hoping that I come home with plenty of new stories and exciting things lined up for the future! Here's a little montage of the significant events that I've been up to since April.

I've been working on presents that are owing. This is a veggie piece that I'm working on for my sister.

I said goodbye to an old friend. The Green Lantern was adopted by a lovely new family. He will be a happier turtle with kids to lay with him, but it wasn't easy to let him go.

 I made LOADS more tea towels. I am fully stocked with my root veggie and piggie screens.

I took a trip to the ever wonderful New York City with my day job. My first time to shop for inspiration around the city and it was fantastic.

 I've taken Linus on a few spins around Toronto. I take him pretty much everywhere I go.

 I also take this guy everywhere I can too. Biking fun!

 I took some beautiful photos of my tea towels, with the help of my friends Derek Matthew, and Julie Tamaki's fabulous kitchen. I then took those photos and used them to promote my tea towels on my Etsy page. Yes, that's right. Go to my etsy site and buy a towel now! Only if you want to, of course. You should want to. They're pretty great.

  I took a three hour learn to ride a motorcycle class. It was intense. I must say it was fun, exhilarating, and heart racing experience, but don't be looking for me on the road with one of these any time soon. I'm going to stick to the smooth ride I get on Linus.

 I hung out with one of my two sisters. She's passionate about animals in clothes. Ramona was given this cute little Scottish hat by her. You can tell from their expressions how it went over for each party involved.

 I saw the Dave Matthews Band. Again.

 I ate yogurt with Morgan.

 Chobani yogurt to be exact. It's a brand that's new to Canada. So far it's only available in Toronto at Loblaws stores. It's yummy greek style. I was invited to attend a little shindig they threw in the city last week. They had this lovely little make your own yogurt bar.

 I tried to make mine pretty, but as the story of my life goes, it got messy. I tried to compensate by adding a little flower. Anyway, the yogurt is delicious and I totally recommend trying it if you are in Toronto or the U S of A.

 I had so much fun making the first two tea towel designs that I decided to do a couple more! I will be debuting them at the conference this week. These will be available on my etsy site soon too, as well as a couple store front locations I will share once they're available.

You may think I'm focusing in my rings, but alas, this photo is about the brace. I have given myself tendinitis through my silk screening escapades. A great fear of mine has been realized. My right hand is injured. I will be fine, and the brace will always be there for support, but I will never take for granted the limits of my hand and what I can and can't do. 

I will be at ICON7 from June 14th through June 17th, in providence, Rhode Island. If you are attending I would love to meet you. I will be back to write all about it soon!

 

A cocky promotion.

What the what? I bet you were expecting another post in, say, 90 days or so. April fools! Here I am again!

I thought I'd share some more new work. I took a course on Thursday last week about the theory of letterpress at Nook Collective in Kensington Market. I am way into silk screening and after investing in some letterpress business cards I think I have room in my brain and heart to be way into letterpress too. It was a way informative class for being two hours (turned into three hours by lost track of time). The instructor, Micheline Courtemanche, is a very talented letterpresser (and owner of Betty & Bing) came all the way from Nova Scotia to teach the class. I suppose I should have known, but I had never thought of how heavy a letterpress machine is. Micheline brought her tiny little "toy" press, that was made as a toy back in the day to teach little boys (because it was a man's job) how to print. Cute machine, but not super productive. The class was more about how to create designs that can be letterpressed, and when it's appropriate to use the technique and when it's better just to screen print or offset print (or digital). It's an art that has so much history and nuances to the machines that it would warrant an apprenticeship to really get a handle on how to do everything correctly (anyone willing to take me on??). That being said, it's obvious to me that if I do want to create letterpress art hand made by me I will have to take a class with someone local who has the equipment. I couldn't even imagine Ronaldo lugging a 1000 pound machine up our stairs, so a machine of my own seems as likely as winning the lottery. If I won the lottery though, I would totally buy a press. 


The folks at nook suggested that participants bring a piece of art that they would consider letterpressing. I should have delved into the massive pile of art I have lying around my studio and picked something. Instead, I made something new. I didn't end up using it for too much the night of the class, but I had fun with it anyway.

I started by drawing and inking an image

Then scanning, cleaning it up, and adding my font to it. This is what I brought to the class.

And then today I decided to add some colour and texture to it in Photoshop, to make it more full of life.

Vintage cool, oui ou non? Do you like this rooster? I am getting ready to start some new tea towel designs and I'm either going to feature fowl or fish. If you were me... actually, seeing as you being you would be more likely to BUY a tea towel, what would YOU want to see? 

I've updated my website with this new art and the last couple of things I've posted about if you feel like checking them out. Have a very tricky April first!

Catch up.

Well, hello there. 
It's now officially fall. Here in Toronto it couldn't be more beautiful. The Sunnyside Pavilion art show was a wonderful weekend. The three day show was full of lots of friendly guests, live musical performances, and hot weather. The Toronto waterfront is a totally awesome place to throw an art show, so kudos to the organizers for picking such a dream venue. 

This time I thought I would invest in my own tent. 

The decision was definitely cost effective one, but the blueness of the tent made everything under it dark, and, well, a little blue. Next year I plan on either splurging on a white tent and sending this one to the land of kijiji or attempting to make a white one myself. We'll see which option is the most cost effective. 

 

I was able to get a few new pieces completed for the event. I've posted them up on my website, but here are a few shots for you to oogle right here and now. 

Copyright Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

I'm pretty happy with the work that I was able to complete, especially considering August just wasn't my month. I was able to sell a few paintings, but am now thinking that I need to get back into a craft mode and see if I can make more money if I sell screen printed versions of my art on tea towels (not handmade by me this time) and work on some custom embroidered decorative pillows for the upcoming Christmas craft season. In my next post I'll tell you about the workshop classes I'm taking to help make sure the third time really is the charm when it comes to my crafty endeavors. In the meantime, head over to clairemanning.com to see the rest of the art from the show.

Biking in the city, Claire style.

Have you melted yet? For goodness sake- go get yourself a popsicle or something before you read this post!

Okay- cooling device in hand? Let's continue. So, new work! I was asked to create a piece for the cover of the Toronto section of the National Post for this passed weekend. Yes, you can still find a copy of it likely until the end of the night of you'd like to see it in person. Otherwise, here are a few shots of it to look at digitally.

Courtesy of Claire Manning

Copyright Claire Manning

So, what do you think? The concept surrounded maneuvering the oddly placed park spaces in Toronto on a bike. I had a great time working on this piece. I chose to hand paint this with acrylic, and then added some touches (mainly the plaid patterns) in Photoshop afterwards. It's been a while since I've done work for the Post. I feel a bit nostalgic creating art for them as they were who gave me my big break and first payed gig as an illustrator. Thanks for the work, Post, and I hope to work with you again soon!

Claire Loves... Enoteca Sociale and Retro Whale!

Good afternoon!

It's sunny here in the T dot, but I'm not fooled. Mother Nature is on a mean streak and she's made the city so cold it could freeze her titties off. Not nice, lady. Anyway, I have to keep this short as Ronaldo and I have to brave the cold to go bottle the brunello we ordered 5 weeks ago. A big HIP HIP HOORAY for having a huge supply of wine in the house again!! That is a love I will get into another day. 

Today, I want to share an incredible restaurant that I've recently been to in my hood. Ronaldo and I have walked past it for nearly a year, always mentioning as we saw it "we really need to try that place out". I've had their postcard pinned to my peg board forever as well, serving as another reminder. 

Finally on March ninth, the 35th anniversary of the birth of the hottest man alive, I had my chance to go. I don't know what I was waiting for. The Restaurant, called Enoteca Sociale, specializes in authentic, home-style Roman fare. During my blog absence in the fall I turned 30 and to celebrate Ronaldo and I went to Italy and we spent the majority of that trip in Rome. The food was exactly as I remembered it to be when we were there. The only downfall to this Enoteca is that I couldn't eat everything on the menu, and frankly I think this is more to blame on my stomach than the restaurant.

I decided to go with a classic carbonara. Funny enough, the wine here is a brunello! I savoured every sip and bite. Check out their website to see the whole beautiful menu and to make a reservation. On Sundays they offer a special "family style" dinner that I am hoping to check out in the not too distant future with some "family style" people. Anyone up for it?

Beyond the incredible food, the design and decor of the joint was fantastic. The lighting was warm and there were lots of wood accents. Very homey. I have to say that the best part of the whole place was a focal wall COVERED with the most amazing, eye-catching, "oh-my-gosh-that's-SO-cute" artwork. There were probably a good 40 to 50 little to medium  sized pieces. Thanks to knowledgeable wait staff and my iPhone I very quickly found that it was all done by one artist- Retro Whale.

 Out. Of. This. World. Retro Whale is based out of L.A. and, as described on their website, their inspiration comes from "animals, movies, outsider art, skate and surf culture, and anything that makes them laugh". I sat beside this beret wearing boston terrier and was in awe all night. Upon further investigation I found that they have not only a website, but a blog and a very active and affordable Etsy store. THIS is the business that one day I want to be able to say I have. Last week I made another step towards this goal by actually uploading my first sale item to my OWN Etsy page! That's right- it's not going to be "coming soon, clearly" anymore. I am selling my ABC giclee prints on it to start, but I am developing some other products to sell and will likely upload other prints soon. I've also added links to PayPal from the paintings that available for purchase on my website. EXCITING! Hopefully I can find some loving homes for my artwork. 

In the meantime I will sip my homemade wine and dream about the next time I will go back to my newly found neighbourhood gem.