Winner of Give Away

Congrats to Meredith McLean for winning my Green slipper chair silkscreen print via the contest on the Marionhousebook blog + Big thanks to Emma Reddington for hosting the Give Away.

Image above from the marionhousebook.

My Holiday cards

 I have 3 different Holiday cards for sale. 

Holiday bike girl above

 Vintage pink ornaments

and Frosty blue vintage ornaments

They all measure 4.15' x 5.5 and are 6 for 20.00 

Available in my shop.

GIVE AWAY TIME!

 Once again the wonderful Emma Reddington from the marionhousebook is hosting a GIVE AWAY for 1 of my silkscreen prints. 
You have a chance to win 1 of the new prints featured below: 
Chanel bottle or green slipper chair. 
Visit her blog and leave a comment to enter!

Good luck!

New prints

Silk screen print
6" X 6"
Varied edition of 40
Printed on Beautiful BFK Rives paper
Signed and numbered

$50.00

silkscreen print 

8" x 10"  

printed on BFK Rives paper

number and signed
2nd edition of 40

$175.00

 To purchase please visit my shop.

 

Thanks to all who made it to my sale on Saturday. 

Great to meet many of you for the first time. 

If you missed the sale but would still like to have a studio visit you are welcome to book an appointment with me. Please email: alanna (dot) cavanagh (at) gmail (dot) com

Prints 

Artists proofs

+

Greeting cards available

My sale is tomorrow 12-6pm ish!

For behind the scenes pics see my instagram!

My Home in Covet Garden

The new first ever Covet Garden print Magazine is out and my home is featured in it. 

You can buy it here. 

(Great Xmas gift for the decor lover in your life) 

Hint hint!

 Gorgeous photography throughout by Jodi Pudge. 

My ink and screens have never looked better.

 My livingroom featuring my silkscreen prints and my needlepointed shoe pillow.

 Wide shot.

 I sure love my IKEA expediet bookcase which serves as a great room divider.

My sweet canary Lord Percy can be seen in the back left corner.

 Me + my Dress Judy screen (which is now split!)

On the left: several of my illustration gigs: Tea towel for the Bay, 2 book covers, some Tattlys and my bird canape plates for Lord and Taylor.

On the right my office and a little peek at my bedroom. 

1. 

Holiday Sale

Come by for sips, snacks and Holiday shopping!

Many new prints and lots of Artists proofs at great prices.

 Ps. Update on December 27th
For the Love of God Do not show up until 1pm. 
I'll never be ready at noon. :-) 

Email alanna.cavanagh@gmail.com for more details

New Work: Chanel bottle

I'm gonna make this into a silk screen print.

It'll be available at my Holiday Sale Saturday December 7th. 

News: Large Dress Judy available again

Due to many requests I have done a 2nd edition of my Large Dress Judy print.
This print was originally done in 2007 and appeared in the June 2010 issue of Canadian House and Home in the home of Trish Magwood. 

From June 2010 issue of Canadian House and Home.

Photographer Stacey Bradford

Details:

26" X 40"

2nd Edition of 18.

(The 1st Edition was 6)

Signed and numbered.

595.00

Available in my shop here.

Please email if you'd like to arrange a studio visit to see it in person.

Below some process shots.

 

Ochre ink

 

 After Pass 1

 Completed print.

 The hand of the world's best printing assistant ever. :-)

Me with the screen which was SPLIT! after the last print was screened.

(This ensures that I won't be doing it again.... 

so if you like Large Dress Judy you better get the print while you can!)

New print: Greek jug

I have a new print available: Greek jug. 
It was inspired by a stroll through the fabulous Attic Black figure vases collection at the ROM.

 

 This print is 4' x 5.5". 

It is a signed print from an edition of 40. 

It is 40.00 and can be purchased in my shop.

I plan on creating 3 more for a series. I think they'd look great framed together as a grouping of 2 of 4.  Below are some pics of the printing process. ps. You can also find these shots on my instagram. 

 First pass with terra cotta coloured ink.

 Applying the black ink with a spatula.

Voila: Finished print.

Sali Tabbachi in Toronto Life City Home issue

The home of two on my favourite graphic designers Melissa Agostino + Henry Tyminski of Sali Tabbachi was featured in Toronto's Life special City Home issue.

My Big Orange Scissors print is featured on the salon wall in their office.

New sketch: Girl instagramming her latté

A year ago today...

A year ago today I was stuck in New York due to Hurricane Sandy. It turned out to be a very cozy crazy special time for me.

The hotel was reserving their emergency generator for the kitchen so the rest of the hotel was completely dark - lit only by the warm glow of candles. So cozy! The staff had gone out and purchased boardgames to keep kids entertained :-) and strangers all began talking to each other as folks do in an emergency. I adore that "we're all snowed in so let's make the best of it" feeling.

For dinner the restaurant created a special Hurricane Sandy Menu. Looking at it a year later gives me a tingley warm feeling because it turned out to be a very special night. Dinner by candlelight with my favourite company - feeling safe + warm was divine ... but there were also two special guests sitting at the table beside us. See tweet from a year ago below. Yep.
Sometimes Life is very special.

p.s. In case you're wondering... we had the mac+cheese + crispy brussel sproats with pancetta.
num num.

Printing in prep for Pop Up Sale and Xmas show

Hi there. From now until December I'll be printing up a storm. 

 

 Printing my antique sifter today.

  My prints will be for sale

November 26 - December 1

At Trish Magwood's Pop Up sale

More details to follow

+

Sat December 7th

at My Open House Holiday Sale

(and as always online here. )

New sketch: Ranunculous bouquet for Emily

For emily- my dear friend that I met in 2nd year at University of Toronto.

 We were both studying art history and I'll always remember that she was the first person to introduce me to the wonderous, many layered Ranunculous. They've been a favourite flower ever since.

New Apple + Pear Tattlys released today!

My Apple + Pear temporary tattoos for Tattly were released today!

 As always I absolutely adore the photography and styling by Julia Robbs for TATTLY.

(Love the dark red lipstick on this model!)

These temporary tattoos are great for both kid and adult birthday parties. 

The apple + pear would also make a great gift for your favourite chef. 

2 for 5.00. 

You can order here.  

Ps. In case you missed the back story on previous post....
FYI Tattly was created by influential designer + blogger Tina Roth Eisenberg aka swissmiss.

New Sketches

Two new sketches.

As I've mentioned a few times before... a person reading is one of my favourite things to draw.
I like the quietness of the subject matter - and the sense of one completely immersed in a book.

 My favourite part of both the sketches is the foot! I drew it too big but like the line of it.

Random Book notes!:

1. The subject in the drawing had just finished Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and highly recommends it.

2. I recently finished John Irving's A Widow for One Year and man did I love it. What a narrative! Is now on my fave novel top ten list. Highly recommended. (Am aware it came out 10 years ago. :-))

Autumn is such a cozy time to tuck into a book at night and be taken away....

On not being able to work

Hi there - Here's the deal.
I've been outta commission with a back injury for almost a month now - hence the lack o' posts.
Am finally feeling better and am back at the drawing board.

The hardest thing for me in the last couple weeks was not the pain - it was not being able to work.  Not being able to check off a DONE list. Not being able to produce something at the end of the day to justify my existence. (Can you tell I went to Catholic school?) I finally had to drag out this quote from Jason Swartzman to remind myself that it's ok to take a pause sometimes. :-) If you're a guilt ridden workaholic I hope you'll find comfort in it as I did.

ps. More of my favourite quotes here.

Work/Life: My pages in the Directory of Illustration

These are my 2 pages in uppercase magazine's Directory of Illustration. 

Above: 

Photos of my inspiration board, me in NYC, sketches and stuff currently hanging out on my fridge.

This is the pattern I created for the directory.

I would love to see this made into fabric or wallpaper.

Hello Mr. Sanderson or Schumacher....!

These are some drawings from my sketchbook.

As you can see not all of the phones made it into the final pattern. 

Sometimes you gotta Kill Your Darlings!

Inspiration: Tomi Ungerer - One of the absolute best!

On Sept 6th I saw the documentary Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story

Tomi is one of my all time favourite illustrators (his economical line!! his humour! his fabulous kids books! his incredible political posters! his saucy erotic drawings!) and I can't recommend the doc enuf. Thanks so much to Glenn Sumi for the reco. :-)
Watch the trailer here.

New Sketch: cowboy boot

My garden tea towel is on sale

My garden tea towel is now on sale at the Hudson's Bay. 

They're all sold out at the Queen St. store in Toronto but you can buy them online here: 

A perfect gift for your favourite gardener!

2 good quotes for Perfectionists

I really struggle with Perfectionism so keep these quotes on my fridge at all times.  
Photographer Jodi Pudge instagrammed this shot when she was shooting my house last Tuesday. :-)

Covet Garden in the House!

Today the gals from Covet Garden along with photographer Jodi Pudge + assistant Ian were chez moi to shoot my space for Covet Garden's upcoming book. I was thrilled to have Jodi shoot my space as I've admired her work for years. Below some pics from a very fun day.

 Setting up

 

Editor Jessica Reid + Jodi assess the situation!

Jessica, Jodi + delicious scones from the Drake - which Jodi declared the best in the city!

Its true ... very flakey.

Jodi,  Jessica + Editor Lynda Felton in background posing in a classic "Serious Editor" pose.

Hi-larious.

Here she is doing it again!

Lynda is one of the funniest people I've ever met - she kept me cracking up the entire day.

 

Jodi shooting me while I shoot her.

Yes... very Meta.

With Jodi's shooting and Jessica + Lynda's styling + input the photos turned out absolutely gorgeous! Alas I can't show them to you until December when the book comes out. Can't wait!

ps. Speaking of... Have you ordered your copy yet?