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You WILL Be Mine


"You WILL Be Mine (Pearl and Arty)," 6" x 8", a special Valentine's Day portrait depicting a yellow lab and a black standard poodle. This piece was done in Golden Open Acrylics on a Raymar Panel, and is the first ever Dog a Day Valentine GiveAway portrait!

Reproductions and notecards of "You WILL Be Mine" can be ordered via my FineArtAmerica storefront.

Doesn't this remind you of the whole elementary school playground bit?

Today's painting belongs to Lisa Stahlberg, who last week submitted the hysterical photo (scroll down, please) of Pearl and Arty playing in the snow. Little did I know, but Arty is a PAWS With a Cause service pup in training, and Pearl is a face I painted many years ago. Congratulations to Lisa and her two sidekicks for inspiring this year's Valentine!

And thank you to all who so graciously sent in photos of your loved companions - I'll be responding personally to everyone. It was beyond rewarding to see the response to the contest, and I am thoroughly enjoying lingering (now that the decision has been made!) with the stories and faces. I wish I could have painted them all !!

I hope, though, to bring some of them to my easel, and therefore to you, during the coming months.

Please visit the studio's Facebook page for a peek at the finalists' photos, too. Better yet, become a fan of the page, and the next time I announce a contest, you'll be one of the first to hear! It'll also be one of the first places I post a link to the short film I made of "You WILL Be Mine's" painting process......

Thanks so very much for following along with my artwork!
May your day be full of joy and your heart bursting with love,
Kim


Decisions, Decisions
(or rather, How I Chose)

With 95 little (and big) muses entered in my 1st ever Valentine Dog a Day GiveAway, I had a difficult time selecting the subject of today's painting.

How to choose?

First I hid the sender's identity to further preserve anonymity.

Then I scrolled through each email, looking just at photos (I didn't ask for stories, and not everyone submitted them, so I needed to keep the playing field even).

The photos that looked the most fun to paint, I saved to a separate folder, using numeric names.

I thought it would be easy - that there would be one image that clearly stood out. But there were many that stood out, all for different reasons. Even after reviewing multiple times during the day, my choice was not clear.

I called in reinforcements. The whole family reviewed the same folder and ranked their top 4. The two clowns pictured above were on everyone's list!
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Comments

  1. Lisa Daria7:07 PM

    Oh this is great, really good motion and atmosphere - I would not know how to paint moving snow, you did an excellent job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. martinealison11:48 PM

    La course folle de l'amour!!!
    Pleine de vie cette peinture... Bisous

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kimberly Kelly Santini9:46 AM

    again, Martine, thank you! :) Kim

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kimberly Kelly Santini9:57 AM

    thanks, Lisa - the trick (at least with this one) was paying attention to the edges. The shadows had crisper edges, and the blowing snow was all soft glazes and spattered paint.

    ReplyDelete

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