Paintings With Soul

  "Kinsley," 9" x 12", commissioned portrait of such an adorable little girl, acrylics on museum quality panel. This dog painting has a home - but does your home have a dog painting? Museum quality 8" x 10"s featuring one dog on a simple ground start at $499; other sizes and complexities priced accordingly.   Reach out  to start the conversation. Thanks, as always, for following along on my art journey, Warmly, Kim

"Blue," roughly 8" x 10", acrylics on a shield shaped wooden panel (yes, the painting is this shape and roughly 3/4" high), my personal collection. I'm not letting this one go anywhere!  Message me   if you would like information on commissioning your own pet's portrait, or maybe you want something like this, in a special shape. Portraits start at $400. Trekell Art Supplies   has a pet portrait contest where submissions must be painted on their panels. I hadn't worked with Trekell previously, although I have been intrigued by their panels' delightful shapes for quite some time. I bought a couple extras when I ordered this, along with a larger fancy medallion one and a shrine shaped piece, just to have fun with. I don't know what I will put on them yet, but they are sitting here, waiting patiently for inspiration to hit. Meanwhile, I hope to finish 2 other commissions tomorrow. I know it's technically a holiday here in the states, but I...

"Paul Anka," 8"x10"x1", acrylics on cradled wood panel, private collection (thank you very much!!). Inquiries can always come   to me . It's been 19 years since I hung out my shingle and officially began a new career as a pet portrait artist. With 3 children aged 6 and under, I started painting at the dining room table while they napped, moving into my own studio two years later. My daily painting commitment,   www.PaintingaDogaDay.com , started 4 years afterwards. There have been well over 1000 faces gracing my easel in this time, and I fall in love with each and every one of them. Here's an added bonus for you - I started Paul Anka's portrait   via a live feed on Facebook . You can   watch it   on the studio Facebook page, or if you are boycotting social media like so many others, it is currently uploading to   YouTub e (and taking forever, I might add, so  message me and I'll send you a head's up when it's ready!). It would be re...

"Alia," 9"x12"x1", acrylics on cradeled museum quality panel, private collection (thank you very much). Purchase inquiries can always come   to me . Alia learned to smile after being rescued by her new family. It was important that her portrait tell the story of a sweet girl with a new outlook. I was delighted to get to paint her this way, relaxed and happy. If you are looking for something extraordinarily special for yourself or a loved one, reach out. Commissioned paintings are a gift like no other, in that they reflect your own ideals while brightening your home/work space. I work from your personal photos to create a one of a kind portrait that looks - and feels - like your best friend. 8x10s start at $499 -   message me  and let's start planning your project! Thanks for following along with my painting journey, Kim

"Tempo," 12" x 12" x 1", acrylics on museum quality cradeled panel, portrait of one heck of a special dog, private collection (THANK YOU!!). Please   reach out to me   with inquiries or questions. Tempo's portrait was mostly painted via a livestream on my FB page, in   a session   I shared last week and   another sideways one earlier today . A third session stretched out over this afternoon, and I think he's close to being done. I've just   sent this jpg off to my collector for her approval - I see one tiny change (picking up the green in his left upper lift, making it a smidge lighter so it floats more so above the tongue), but she will know best if I've properly captured Tempo's larger than life goofiiness. It's not enough that my portraits LOOK like their subject. I want them to FEEL like them too. And while I work from a mess of photos, I could never know the animal as well as their family. Reach out to me   if you want to ...

"Loui," 30" x 30" x 2", acrylics on cradeled museum quality panel, featuring my grand-puppy. If you would like something similar starring your own puppy (or any pet - I don't discriminate), please shoot  me  an email. THIS portrait was a huge surprise. We gifted it yesterday to The Caped Crusader for his birthday. And I'd been waiting a looong time to reveal it, too, having wanted to paint this little guy since he first showed up in our lives. Loui and his siblings were dumped in a cardboard box at about 6 weeks old. My son found him online via a rescue group, just a short time after our family had said goodbye to Finnigan, the dog he grew up with, in July. Loui is an adorably sweet mixed breed, clever and honest, with gorgeous brindle coloring and ears he might never grow into. His larger than life portrait was hung with great pride over the fireplace. And I'm sure Loui is stretched out on the couch right now, too, taking it all ...

"Kodak & Ella," 11" x 14", acrylics on museum quality panel, commissioned portrait starring two stunning golden retrievers. This painting has a home, but if you would like something similar starring your own family members, please shoot  me  and email. I take on a couple pet portraits each month, but don't always get the chance to share them in my newsletter, since the vast majority of them are gifts and sharing could spoil the surprise. But Kodak and Ella's portrait is heading to a collector who has been involved in the project since the summer. It felt so fantastic to send her the final image via email this afternoon and get an enthusiastic thumbs up in return! It will be even better to hear from her when she's holding this one in her hands, in her own home. If you are interested in commissioning a portrait, I can squeeze a couple more in prior to the holidays. And I can always put together a gift certificate, too, which makes for wonde...

"Roxy)," 18" x 24" x 1", acrylic on museum quality panel. This is a commissioned portrait done posthumously and is in a private collection (thank you CW!), however I can work similar magic with your pet and your photos. Interested parties may   reach out to me ; commissioned portraiture starts at $499 Thank you so very much for your interest in my work. I worked on Roxy for about a month before delivering her top secret style, for a fabulous reveal. I am particularly grateful, because in this instance, Roxy's portrait is the second piece of mine this family owns. While the circumstances of their return weren't the happiest, they were utterly delighted in the end to have a wonderful touchpoint for their girl. And I was honored to be the artist entrusted to do so. I have a track record of delivering well over 1000 portraits to satisfied customers since 2001. And lucky you - I can squeeze one more project into July if you reach out now; otherwise...

"That is the Way it Was," 23" circular panel, acrylic on pine, featuring my rescued bunny Gertrude Stein, $999 plus s&h to the first asking kindly. Inquiries may always come   to me.  I accept paypal, venmo, personal checks and payment plans. Some days, I question my calling altogether. What's most important when this happens is to show up anyway, and continue to show up. Because the brushes won't pick themselves up and finish the piece for us. Thanks, as always, for following along with my art journey, Warmly, Kim

"Salvador Doggie," 24" x 48", acrylics on panel, $1499 plua a&h to the first asking nicely. I accept paypal, venmo, personal checks and payment plans. Inquiries may come directly   to moi   - and thank you very much! A couple years ago, the kids and my hub got it in their heads that they wanted another dog, a little lap warmer. I wasn't so sure.  With a senior dog, two cats, a bunny, hamsters and a constant flow of kids at our house, I felt we already had enough going on. They ganged up for months, sending me links to Petfinder dogs with the saddest little faces, and I was the Mean Mom, saying nope. No. Nadda. It's not happening. And then, while walking into the pet store to get food for the three thousand animals we already were caring for, we ran into this little guy. There was an adoption event, and he was there, sitting on someone's lap. He locked eyes with The Princess, and then my hub, and he fell apart. It was like they w...

THIS was crazy fun - settle in, here, because THIS is a good story. In the early part of 2007, the American Kennel Club invited artists to submit artwork for consideration as imagery for the 2007 Dog Show Championships. I couldn't decide on which Dog a Day piece to enter, so I decided to do a compilation. Actually, I did two of them, because I simply couldn't narrow things down. Using my scant photoshop skills (I am SO bad at Photoshop, still!) and scanned images of my paintings, I built composite designs which a local printer inked onto canvas for me. I stretched the canvases (as I recall they were about 18" x 24", not terribly large), and then went back into them with teeny tiny brushes, repainting the whole surface.** It wasn't a standard paint-by-numbers sort of pass - as I reworked things, I changed out the background on some of the paintings, modified dogs to better match breed standards, added different accents of color, changed the v...

As the   Painting a Dog a Day   project grew, so, too, did my own to-do list. My studio profitability had shifted from larger commissioned works which took weeks to complete to the smaller daily paintings. I was doing 3-5 daily commissions each week, varnishing and shipping them out within days. In between creating/ blogging/shipping each piece, I was fielding emails, perusing reference photos, writing quotes and having conversations with new collectors about their own portraits Each commissioned portrait brought new people into my life, and with that came all the stories inherent with getting to know a pet and what they meant to their family. (Do you know that the vast majority of the animals I paint I never meet?  I rely on email communication and a mess of photos to piece things together.) It was always fascinating, getting a glimpse into others' lives and loves. I think it was 2010 or so when N...

Puppy Butt, pictured above, is one of my all time favorite Dog a Day paintings because it provided a critical Ah-Ha moment. It's a little piece, 6" square, that hammered in a big lesson. He sold right away, but you can order reproductions and other items through   my FineArtAmerica storefront . I remember painting it - keep in mind that after more than 1300 Dog a Day paintings, I don't recall actively creating too many of them. I remember being excited to start, so excited that I jumped right in, sweeping the background in with a wide brush I hadn't bothered to clean or wipe off. My color became grayed out and muted color. I cursed myself for being lazy (it's my greatest painting vice), but then I said, hey, lazy girl, you might have just done something pretty cool. Laying the background colors down with a dirty brush mucked them up (I work in layers, and paint the entire background first before putting the dog/foreground shape in). They were...

A process video from 2010 featuring two Frenchies  Watching this video was quite the step back in time! In order to make these sorts of films the camera was set up - and not touched - for days. In some households that wouldn't be an issue, but in this one, it was a ginormous challenge. Because as soon as the camera was set up, someone needed to get into the closet behind it. Or a dog would come ramming into the tripod. Or I would forget it was there and back straight up into it. The real life hazards of filming at home. On top of that, I had to remember to turn the camera off when I left the easel (to take a phone call, lock a kid out of the house, set dinner to burning on the stove) and, most critically, turn it back on when I returned. You'll see a shining example at about the 56 second mark when I forgot to do just that. I spend a lot of time laughing at myself. It's a coping mechanism. My process has changed some in the last 9 years...

"Majia," 20" x 24" x 1-1/2", acrylics on cradeled panel, commissioned portrait, private collection (thank you very much). This photo is a little washed out at the top, but the sun is streaming into the studio (and keeping the camera from behaving properly), so I won't complain! I accept a limited number of commissioned projects; I work with your photos to create original imagery that will provide a lifetime of enjoyment. Inquiries may come   to me . Isn't Majia marvelous? The sort of horse that dreams are made of...... but she's for real, and my collector adores her. It was a special honor to paint Majia, as my client is also an artist. These sorts of projects are both validating and intimidating. Thanks, as always, for following along with my art journey, Warmly, Kim

"Scatterghost," 20" circle, acrylics on gallery wrapped canvas, $899 plus s&h to the first asking nicely. I accept paypal, venmo, personal checks and payment plans. Inquiries may come   to me . The Christchurch shooting has me feeling all sorts of feels. They settled in heavily alongside the news, and I began trying to wrap my brain around how to paint such a monstrous thing. It began with the idea of fragility, and how quickly the balance of life can shift. The painting   Delicate   (who sold while still on my easel - thank you so much AK!) came off my brushes, followed by this one. Scatterghost takes her title from the Mary Oliver poem   "The Rabbit,"   which is also a tale of life and death, although a sweeter one by far. At a time when there are no words, I am grateful to have my paints. Thanks, as always, for following along with my art journey, Warmly, Kim

"Listen," 12" x 16", acrylics on museum quality panel, $499 plus s&h to the first asking nicely. I accept paypal, venmo, personal checks and payment plans. Inquiries may come   to me . I have been very frustrated lately, both creatively and personally. Today I realized it was all relative to the idea of listening - or not listening, as the case my be. In the studio, I was forcing my paintings to conform to my process, and not paying attention to the simple construct of formulating a concept and responding to the work as it evolved. I wasn't LISTENING to what the piece was telling me it needed. In the real world, I was encountering so much noise that I couldn't retreat into my own head to complete a simple thought. I was LISTENING to more sources at a given time than my brain could sort out. Which also adds frustration in that the amount of noise was restricting my ability to hear, think, and respond thoughtfully. I think the answer is to allo...

In Process: "Blue, version 2.0," 16" x 20", acrylics on panel. Collection of moi. However I will make prints available when he's finished, so   let me know   if you are interested in being notified when that happens. I painted our little boy  Blue   once before, and   that one   is currently hanging in The Gold Show at The Anton Art Center in Mt. Clemens   (the exhibition opening is this Saturday, from 2-4, if you are interested).  Meanwhile, this is a similar pose but a different approach, lighter hearted and a bit more playful, just like Blue himself. I am considering sending this version to a juried exhibition as well, but if I do, he must be for sale. I'm not sure if I can do that and risk him not coming home. I suppose we shall see as the entry deadline draws closer if I feel any differently. Meanwhile, yes, I can do something similar to this starring your four legged soulmate. Commissioned portraits in this style start at...

Kimberly Kelly Santini   paintings with soul because our world needs more beauty   "The Spell She Casts (Medicine Hat #13)," 16" x 20" x 1", acrylics on gallery wrapped canvas, image painted around the side, so no need to frame unless you wish. And yes, that glow you see in the image is gold paint reflecting the light - this piece will move and shimmer as you pass by. She is $649 plus s&h to the first one asking nicely. Inquire directly   to me   - I accept personal checks, paypal, venmo and will arrange payment plans. This Medicine Hat painting is number 13, so of course that association alone had me thinking about magic. If you love the company of equines, you know first hand the spells they cast. And that their magic lingers long after they have left. Thanks, as always, for following along with my art journey, Warmly, Kim

Above, full painting, below a detail. "Your Destiny Will Keep You Warm (Medicine Hat #10)," 22" x 30", acrylics on panel, $999 plus s&h to the first one asking nicely. Inquire directly   to me   - I take personal checks, paypal, venmo and will arrange payment plans. SOLD (TY!) Seems like the paint has been flying in these parts, due to no lack of inspiration as I spend time reflecting upon and painting these magical horses. Each Medicine Hat piece has gotten stronger than the one prior - or maybe it's that collectively they are gathering more power. There's so much magic in these pieces, I can't stand it. I am feeling the need for some sort of restoration, but also fearing to take a break and potentially interrupt the flow. So perhaps it is convenient that tomorrow I have to leave the studio and go out into The Real World to deliver several paintings across town, then attend a gallery opening and cheer on good friends who's work w...