Sini Manninen

In 1990, the family moved to Confolens, a small town in the northeast Charente region, where they settled permanently. Nonetheless, in order to make a living, the two artists were forced to keep their small apartment in Montmartre, where they went regularly to continue painting on the Place du Tertre. Sini Manninen actively painted for public and private exhibitions. Additionally, some works have been exhibited at the museum of naïve art in Vicq, in Ile de France, as well as at the Art Museum of Matanzas in Cuba.

In 1973, she moved to Montmartre, in Paris, to live with her companion Jacques Blank, also a painter, whom she met in Norway. While living in Paris, she showcased numerous exhibitions, as well as elsewhere in the world. Sini and Jacques’ everyday life took place at the Place du Tertre in Montmartre where they painted and sold their artwork. In 1980, Sini Manninen received a grant from the Finnish Foundation to attend the Cité internationale des arts in Paris. That same year their first child was born, Solene, while their second child, Mikko was born shortly thereafter in 1982. Following the death of Jacques' father, Lucien Blank, in 1988, the family decided to seek a life conducive to the development of their children and their art.

In 1965, she moved to Helsinki to enter the Academy of Fine Arts (Suomen taideakatemia) until 1969. During this time, she trained with other renowned artists such as Saara Tikka, Inari Krohn, Tarja Unkari, Kari Lindström and Risto Vilhunen. Between 1970 and 1973, she went to work in a herring plant in Norway to earn a living and participated in the Oslo Young Painter's Association in Norway from 1970 to 1977.

A youngest daughter of Elis Olavi Carolus Manninen [fi] and Elisabeth Budnik, Sini Manninen grew up in Joensuu, Karelia, where her father officiated as a pastor before becoming a member of Parliament during the 1960s. Later, the family moved several kilometers to the small town of Liperi, where nature and its colors, as well as animals, will became an inexhaustible source of artistic inspiration.

Sini Manninen (26 August 1944, Joensuu, Finland – 23 September 2012, Paris, France) was a Finnish painter and artist, trained at the Académie des Beaux Arts de Helsinki in Finland. She produced the majority of her works in France, to which she moved in 1973, more precisely, to the Montmartre district of Paris. Mastering many painting techniques (oil, acrylic, watercolors, ink, and charcoal) under various disciplines, naïve art remained her fondest style.