Skip to main content

30 Dogs 30 Days - Pink Chihuahua

My very first Dog a Day painting, Pink, a little 4" x 5" panel, private collection (THANK YOU!). This is where things really began to take off. But let's go back in time a little first.

It's 2006. I had been creating larger than life sized pet portraits for about 5 years, selling them online (via ebay and my website). I was a little disillusioned, always moving from one commission to another, with little time for continued learning or experimentation (entirely my own fault). In October I decided to carve out a small window of time each day for just myself. An hour to push paint without any expectation but to have fun. I built a blog as a dedicated space to record my efforts, because I love to compartmentalize everything. Yes, everything. My Inner Marketer thought I should dovetail the daily project with the studio in some way, to further drive traffic to my website via keywords, regular updates and context similar content - so I chose to focus on dog portraits. As an added caveat, when a painting sold, I donated proceeds to animal welfare, because that simply felt right - these little dailies were to be bonus exercises to benefit my creative mental health, and as such, they could continue out into the world benefitting animals' lives, too. (For current collectors who really want a groan, these little gems sold for $20-40 each, 8x10s were $90!)

And the rest is history.

I got a little press, a TON of support from collectors and friends, and suddenly there was a Painting a Dog a Day community. My daily newsletter went out to 1000+ readers, wait lists for a Dog a Day portrait stretched into months, and I completely revamped my studio operations to focus on small portraits, 3-4 each week, with the remaining daily slots left for whatever I felt like painting. Which, for the most part the first year or two, was primarily dogs.

But my connection with canines started long before this, and in the next 30 days I will share some of those roots with you, along with some more recent stories, all connecting dogs and my artwork.

Stay tuned, invite your friends (because word of mouth is the best sort of endorsement), and share your own stories. Welcome to 30 Dogs 30 Days.

Warmly, Kim
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Picture Book "A Dog Named Blue" - now available!!

The cover of "A Dog Named Blue," now available from Blurb publishers. When I first painted Amelia I never imagined that she would be re-christened "Blue" and inspire a book. In her defense, Amelia had a number of other partners in crime - animals who's portraits seemed to fall into a specific color category and prompt color-centric names. In typical ADD fashion, my brain started spinning 100mph. What if I turned those muses' paintings into a picture book for animal loving kids? I shared my idea with three friends in the industry, and they eagerly offered their expertise. I am truly indebted to them. Illustrator and author Matt Faulkner and children's book author and literacy expert Kristen Remenar edited an early version of the draft. They suggested key plot/conceptual changes that made it oodles better. Designer Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson worked her magic, pairing the images with perfectly color...
1 comment
Read more

Tabby Kit

"Tabby Kit," 5" x 7", acrylics on a museum quality panel, depicting a tiny little orange striped guy from Morgue File . This painting can be yours for $289, which includes s&h inside the US. And in case you didn't see it, a little doodle of him is also available for sale here . Inquires may come directly to me .  Although it certainly doesn't FEEL like spring here (snow and ice and wind chills, brr!), I can tell that spring is coming. The mercury is rising a wee bit each day and the days are getting longer and brighter. Over the weekend we drove with the moonroof open just to feel the sun's meager and oh-so-very-welcome warmth (although the heat in the car was cranked, too, in the interest of full disclosure!). I wanted to work with spring-like colors today, and this little guy was still on my mind , so I grabbed a small panel and got to work. Of course, I also have Poppy to finish and some changes to make to another po...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Copyright Thieves

Dear Copyright Thieves,   Just because it's on the internet doesn't mean it's free for the taking. So let's just stop pretending the internet is a free-for-all.   Don't play the card that you didn't know - that's insulting. And don't also tell me that you meant to follow up and get permission but never got a chance to. That's insulting too. And by the way, don't you have a copyright protection notice on your own site?   And don't even try and point the finger at a third party who commissioned you to make a copy of my painting - again, an insult - you and I both know the difference between a reference photo and a painting.   And don't tell me that I asked for it because I share my artwork on the internet. I share my paintings and ideas and the stories behind them so as to encourage others to pursue  their own passions . I do not share so that those lacking integrity and morals can copy and market the images as their own...
33 comments
Read more