Paintings With Soul

  "Little Lola," 5" x 7", commissioned portrait of a mixed breed sweetheart, acrylic on museum quality panel, private collection (THANK YOU!). Inquiries may come  to me .   In process photos of this painting can be viewed on  the studio's Facebook page .        Little Lola was so happy to find a family that she toughed it out through a cough, which after a couple days turned into double pneumonia. She's healthy now, and was doubly delighted to come home from the doggy hospital to her forever home.   But shhh!! This painting is a surprise for Lola's family, so don't spill the beans, ok?   I love keeping secrets - don't you?! Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com     Happy Pie Day!   In honor of Pie Day, I'm baking pot pies for everyone.    Well, virtually, that is.   Unless you are immediate family, in which case, guess what's for dinner?!        

On top, “Fax,” 8” x 16”, acrylic on gallery stretched canvas. On bottom, “Fax,” 4x8, acrylic on canvasboard, dog a day painting. Both paintings in a private collection.. In addition to the smaller paintings on canvasboard (which I refer to as my dog-a-day paintings), I also complete stretched canvases in a variety of sizes. I wanted to show you this newly finished stretched canvas as a means of comparison, because I had painted Fax as a dog-a-day back in February. The dog-a-day pieces are very spontaneous, and intimate. They have a tender quality and looser brushwork, and are typically inspired by one particular photograph. The stretched canvases are more detailed, careful renderings, not just of a specific likeness, but of the animal’s nature. These paintings are a collaboration between myself and the animal’s person, and often pull in elements from multiple photographs. I think you can get a sense of the difference between the two types by comparing both my likenesses here. It’s impo...

Today’s piece is all about color. I wanted to play with color today, so chose to paint a tri-colored terrier. Their wiry fur lies close to pink skin, and the tan and black markings shift from orange to blue to green to violet. I simply loaded my brush and had at it! The image does no justice at all to the juicy detail in this painting – this little fellow is laughing, full of life, and ready for spring. Come to think of it, I’m feeling a little giddy myself at the promise of some sunshine. “Jack Russell/Parsons Terrier Study,” 6”x12”, acrylic dog portrait on canvasboard, $90. Inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com . SOLD. I owe a special thanks to the “Dog Lady” for applying her distinctive voice to an article on the Dog-a-Day project, which you can see (along with many other entertaining canine related reads) on her site http://www.askdoglady.com/ . Thanks, as always, for looking. And for sharing these dog paintings with your friends and family. Cheers to the last day of winte...