C'mon down to the lake!

I have been a busy bee preparing to show my wares at the upcoming Sunnyside Juried Art Show this weekend and I am getting excited thinking it's only a few days away! Of course, if you are in Toronto, or near Toronto, or have friends that like art in Toronto, I would love to see as many people as possible. I love visiting and chatting with people, especially since I've all but shut myself off from the social world for the past few weeks, going cross-eyed making beautiful new paintings. I know I'll be feeling talkative. Anyway, a re-cap on the info.

Please visit the website link above for additional information, or stay up to date through the show's facebook page.  I will be located on the upper level of the pavilion in booth #2. Come by and you can pick up one of my brand spankin' new business cards! 

I just received them in the mail yesterday and I love them! I needed to update my card in a huge way. Big thanks to Richard Meneely at USB cards out of New Jersey for the beautiful job and the extremely fast turnaround. I love the letter press and it's so fitting that it's on chip board. Richard offers a number of natural surfaces on which to have your cards pressed. He's also known for printing on recycled cereal boxes. Not really my thing, but cool nonetheless.  


Please don't forget to stop by the Sunnyside pavilion for a visit this weekend if you are in Toronto. I will likely blog on location, for those who want a play by play but can't be there in person. 


Now, back to work! G'night!

Before and after.

Here I am, a week before the big Sunnyside Art Show weekend. It's also the first week of September. It's been the fastest summer on record for me. I say this mostly because I lost August for the most part. I thought I would concentrate on the beginning of the month and the end, and less about the nasty middle.

So, Ronaldo and I ended up going to New York City for the first weekend of August. It was incredible. Great food, lots of sightseeing and walking, and a visit to Fishes Eddy! I was so excited and bought a few things. If I were independently wealthy and came on the plane with more than carry on luggage I would have bought more. 

 

The after has been very busy, as I simply did not plan to lose a month. I have been able to do quite a bit of painting and have some more time to work on some additional pieces in the upcoming week. 

I have a week because I am transitioning into another position with a new company. This company is not only very close to home, but it's smaller with a more boutique feel to it. I'm actually pretty excited to see where it takes me. I'm thankful for the extra time to prepare. I will update with information about next weekend's show on Monday. Be then I should know where my booth location is.

Enjoy your weekend!

Claire DOES NOT Love... rashes.

Well, here I am, over a week since my last post, with another sad post. I have been fighting a bacterial infection called cellulitis in my leg that sent me to the hospital for three days last week. This infection is accompanied my a painful, swollen rash. I have been taking antibiotics and taking it easy for a week and things were starting to look up for me. That is, until this morning when I woke up with an itchy head-to-toe rash. Yes, another rash. This one is a reaction to a drug that I was taking to get rid of the other one. Sigh. I'm stuck with this one for two weeks. The good news is that it isn't going to change my recovery from the cellulitis, it's not contagious, and it's not dangerous to me.  I'm lucky enough to have a great group of friends that have been taking care of me and watching out for me. These are some flowers from a couple of them, Raquel and Ryan. I am incredibly grateful for all of my friends.

With that in mind I am pushing through and working when I can. I am prepping for the show coming up in a few weeks and hoping I'll have more than a few new pieces to show off. I'm still trying to find the balance between working and recovering. The last thing I need to do is make myself more sick and rashy by not taking care of myself. 

As Ronaldo has so kindly quoted, "no more rashes". I consider it my new mantra.

Taking the good with a healthy dose of bad.

Hello folks! 
It's been a while, no? Well, I have apologize for that. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. I was fortunate enough to return to the Printsource show with my day job at the beginning of the week. Ronaldo and I opted to add Saturday and Sunday to my Monday and Tuesday work schedule. The whole experience was great. I was at the airport in New York ready to head home when I got the message that my Grandpa had passed in his sleep that morning. I swooped from a pretty big high to a very low low. It was a total shock. I had only seen him a week and a half ago and he was doing well. I have to say, in the midst of this bad news, that I couldn't have been luckier to grow up with two sets of amazing grand parents. As much as I miss them now some folks don't get the chance to know their grand parents at all. My low got even lower at I contracted a deep tissue infection in my right leg that made me so physically ill that I was unable to attend my Grandpa's funeral. I'm now pretty much lower than low at this point. I will be digging deep to continue working on artwork for an upcoming art show. 

Have I forgotten to tell you about this art show? Let me fill you in!

 It's the Sunnyside Beach Juried Art Show & Sale. It's happening at the Sunnyside pavilion off of Lakeshore West in Toronto during the second weekend of September. Please visit the show's facebook page for more information. 

For tonight I've got a date with my rashy leg, Ramona, my couch and some netflix. Hopefully tomorrow brings a bit of goodness.

Bunny love.

That's right. I'm in love. With a bunny. 

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to take a visit to the ever popular Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition. It happens every year during the second weekend in July. Though I was not accepted to participate this year a few of my friends were and I went to support. It was a great show, but I really can't wait until the construction that plagues the location of the event to be completed so that more artists have the opportunity to participate. Particularly me.

I always go to the show with a little money in my pocket as I know that I will always find something I like and enjoy supporting fellow artists, even on my meager budget. This year I knew the minute I saw the booth that I wanted one of Sonja Ahlers beautiful bunnies. 

Sonja spreads her time around Vancouver, Whitehorse, and Toronto (though I heard that she's not often in Toronto) and has been evolving her amazing bunnies since the mid 1990's. They are made from hand picked vintage sweaters that she boils to felt the fabric and hand dyes. They have been featured in magazines, museums, galleries and movies (namely one that involves a lame shimmery vampire and a lovesick teenager). She uses the earnings on these sweet guys to help fund her other art projects. I've seen Sonja's work at The Magic Pony before, but only one at a time. To see a whole booth of them was almost too much for my heart. 

I have a thing for artsy toys and have a little collection that I've grown over the years.

Sonja's bunny fits in well. Even Ramona gives her seal of approval.

 Sonja uses the extra scraps of sweater to make little shawls. Each one is had sewn with care.

My bunny came in a cute little peach teacup. It makes me happy just to look like.

It seems this purchase opened a floodgate. They say things happen in threes, and I suppose art toy purchases follow in that tradition. This is a hand made, hand painted little guy from a friend of mine, Gosia, who participated in this year's exhibition. I adore him too!

 And just this weekend while at my favourite store in Kensington market, Good Egg, I found this bird whistle. At $4.00 I couldn't say no. The whistle blows (haha!) but the bird is sweet as can be. 

 Now it's time for me to start saving my money for my big trip to New York City. My day job will be sending me to attend the upcoming print show and Ronaldo and I are taking the weekend before as a mini vacation. Until then I've got loads of stuff to do. I will share it all with you! 

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!

Illustration Mondays.

It's Tuesday!

Today is a vacation day for me. A little relaxation in the hazy summer is an okay thing. After nearly a week off of day job tomorrow will be a bit of a downer. I still have this whole day ahead of me and I plan on making the most of it, including a bike ride and a trip to Chapters to do some potential client research. I figure if they aren't coming to me that I will go to them. Checking out magazine mastheads is a great way to find out who the current art director is. 

Before I get into illustration Mondays, I wanted to share a piece of my weekend with you. 

Originally published on TheState.com, photo by Sean Kilpatrick AP

Yes, that is me in my finest red Canada day dress, running for my life on Parliament hill in Ottawa amongst the half million that came to see the newly wed royal couple. It really was a case of run or be run over. I ran all the way to the front of the stage, got hit by the wave of people, and then tried to find my group and head back to an open spot away from the die hard Will and Kate fans. Thankfully, no one was hurt. We found a comfortable spot to sit and relax and enjoy the festivities in our nation's capital. 

Now, illustration Mondays. There is a website out there called Illustration Fridays. Every Friday the folks on this site send out a form of inspiration, usually words of some sort. I've decided that much like I'd exercise my body I need to exercise my illustration abilities, so on my Mondays I am creating a quickie illustration study based on their inspirational word(s). The idea is not to make it perfect, just get an idea down and finish it as fast as possible. Here are my first two.

Monday June 27th: Midsummer's Night

Copyright Claire Manning

Monday July 4th: Remedy

Copyright Claire Manning

So far I've found it a fun practice. I will keep posting them here for your viewing pleasure.

Now, off to enjoy my vacation day! Keep cool everyone!