Red, White & Blue

"Red, White & Blue," 20" x 8", acrylic on gallery stretched canvas, complete with painted image stretching around the sides, thus eliminating the need to frame. This triple Labrador Retriever painting was inspired by prior Dog-a-Day portraits, and is available for $699. Inquiries may come to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com .

How do I build these montages? I basically "digitally scrapbook," using jpegs of my own paintings. I alter the jpegs with my computer, changing their value ranges, cropping the images or photoshopping them in some capacity. I love this process where I build relationships between individual portraits, "composing" stories. When I'm happy with the composition, my giclee guy archivally prints the design on canvas. Many, many hours and layers and layers of paint later (I paint over the entire surface multiple times, changing many details - this is not a stroke-for-stroke sort of copy of the prior portraits) I have an entirely new painting.**

I'm working on a couple similar montages (one starring felines, for those of you patiently waiting). I'm also thinking along the lines of breed specific pieces as fundraisers for rescues and the such. At this point I've got over 400 smaller portraits to work from, so my possibilities seem endless!

I started this one way back in August 2008. It looks a little flat, color-wise, on my monitor. There are layers upon layers of similar values, stacked hash-marks, and pockets of bold color peeping out. It simply doesn't photograph the same way one's eye processes.

Thank you, as always, for looking at and sharing my paintings with your friends and family.
See you tomorrow - and please stay warm! it's nasty here with whipping winds and drifting snow - brrr!!
Kim
ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com
www.turtledovedesigns.com

**Please note that this process is acceptable only when one owns the copyright to all the images being used. If you have questions regarding copyright law, please visit www.copyright.org