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