Wild & Precious (Medicine Hat #15)

At tippy top, full image, immediately above, detail. "Wild & Precious (Medicine Hat #15)," 20" x 30" x 1-1/2", acrylics on gallery wrapped canvas, image painted around the edges, so no need to frame. $1299 plus s&h, message me for more details.

This piece took some serious turns today, particularly after a critique with Vianna Szabo(followers of my blog will know that I worship this woman and all that comes off her easel and out of her mouth). We had tea and bearclaws together this morning, and she reminded me that artists work with the same materials, And the same ideas of value, edges, color and application. Now let me tell you that up until that point, I was so in love with this painting. But then it hit me - this particular painting was mostly about paint application. I got so caught up in the joy of laying the marks down that I forget to assess the balance of values, control my edges to drive the focal point, and push color to tell the story. The painting was simply screaming about application, much like a roomful of toddlers needing a nap (Vianna's analogy! LOL!), and the rest of the beauty got lost in the mayhem.

So I came home, put my big girl panties on, and painted over 1/3 of the surface. It was terrifying, I won't lie. What if I failed? But I acknowledged it was scary, gave myself permission to fail, and did it anyways.

Thanks, as always, for following along with my art journey,
Warmly, Kim

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Tabby Kit

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NEW! Etsy Store

One of my favorite unsold paintings from 2008, "Lashes & Corkscrews," 5" x 8", acrylic on canvasboard, depicting a tobiano buckskin curly horse, $289. Inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com (but read further on how you can get a special deal on this painting!). Now it's ridiculously easy to browse my painting archives. All you have to do is visit my Etsy store . Etsy has a Shopping Cart (so you can pile it high with purchases from a variety of artists), is integrated with Paypal (although you may still pay by check if you prefer to), and is terribly simple to navigate. When the week has ended, I will have listed almost 100 of my favorite (UNSOLD!) paintings here, grouped loosely by subject matter. During 2009 I'll update the shop regularly, and add non-Dog-a-Day pieces as a bonus, thus making it easy to search for that perfect gift. Watch my daily postings for announcements, promotions and discount codes. If you do not receive the Dog-a-Day emails (

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