Paintings With Soul

  Persist watch the video This lesson was recorded the week of January 13, 2025, as wildfires ravaged through the Los Angeles area, my home for 8 sweet years. I ache thinking of the loss of life, devastation to property, the land and her inhabitants, and communities (there is a painting about this in the works).   There's much to mourn in today's world on so many fronts – this art journaling session is specifically structured to provide an opportunity for solace and reflection.   Like the phoenix, we can and will rise from the ashes. Persist is the third   Acts of Art project . Acts of Art’s mission is to leverage the healing power of art and make creative endeavors accessible to all via lesson plans, prompts and projects. You can learn more about Acts of Art and sign up to be part of the mailing list at the link above. Meanwhile, feel free to gather some loved ones and collectively enjoy this newest art journaling experience. Also, there’s plenty of other streamable...

  Swallowtail view her on my website Swallowtail, original acrylic on flat panel, 16”x20”, $850 plus s&h. I welcome your questions (yes, I offer payment plans - details below). Just  reach out . Swallowtail is part of a recent experiment where I start out with a random and chaotic drawing that then is gently teased into a recognizable shape. I discovered this process while playing one morning with one of  my favorite new drawing tools . Play is such an important part of my art practice. My most successful paintings are rooted in some aspect of play - play is where the best ideas show up, unexpectedly, enthusiastically. Then I get to work figuring out what the play based approach provides and how to leverage that. I play in my journals and sketchbooks, but also as part of my daily warmups and even inside paintings already on my easel. I think play should be a legit piece of every single day, no matter one’s age. You can zoom in to Swallowtail over  on my website ...

  new prints (click above to view available images) visit my website I’ve finally updated my print on demand storefront with new images!   Here’s a direct link to   the new offerings , here’s where you can see   all I have available . Thank you SO much for your interest in my artwork! Love to you all, Kim

  Pushing Paint (click to image to view video) visit my website It’s been a week, friends. Which happens, right? I’m not going to beat myself up over it. Instead I am going to applaud that I showed up every day and did my best. Because that’s a huge accomplishment.   Here’s a little palette cleanser for you - a quick reel compressing a painting session from earlier this week into a minute and a half. Hope it brings a little calm or wonder into your day. And here’s to a fresh start next week. My heart is breaking for the communities impacted by the California fires. We called Los Angeles home for 8 years and it appears that many of our favorite places are now ash. The devastation is impossible to fathom. May all impacted know love and support as they navigate their enormous loss. Love to you all, Kim PS if you are leaving Meta but want to continue to see art related tips, join   the free tier of my Patreon ! I’m also   @kimberlysantini over on BlueSky available painti...

  Indigo view her on my website Indigo, original acrylic on flat panel, 16”x20”, $850 plus s&h. I welcome your questions (yes, I offer payment plans - details below). Just  reach out . This painting is a rework. I was in love with the prior version,  Indigo Apricot , at the time I created her, and she’s been hanging in the studio ever since. The last couple weeks, though, I began to see things differently. I itched to go back into the painting and make some changes. In artist speak this is called “seeing with fresh eyes.” Fresh eyes are an important tool in that they help the artist critically view a work of art and design adjustments as it progresses. Ironically, fresh eyes are tough to maintain when one is in the thick of creating said work. At the time I painted  Indigo Apricot  I was focused on other ideas specific to a proposal I was writing and seemingly forgot some basics (like varied edgework and an interesting value pattern).  I am infinitely p...

  Rabbit Rabbit 2025 view her on my website Rabbit Rabbit 2025, original acrylic on flat panel, 16”x20”, $850 plus s&h. I welcome your questions (yes, I offer payment plans - details below). Just  reach out . I hadn’t planned on painting yesterday, but I sort of had no choice when I woke up to the news. I needed to process things, and for me the best place to do that is at the easel.  This is a painting of a rabbit done overtop another rabbit painting ("rabbit rabbit" is a superstitious saying meant to bring good luck on the first of the year/month), filled with poppies (a symbol of remembrance and hope), injected with some borealis coloring (the vastness of the universe is always a healthy dose of awe and humility), done on the first day of 2025. She is my prayer for our world in 2025. My heart is with New Orleans today and anyone else impacted by  gun violence. You can get your nose right into Rabbit Rabbit 2025 over  on my website , where you can view her...

  Stardust view her on my website Stardust, original acrylic on flat panel, 18”x24”, $1000 plus s&h. I welcome your questions (yes, I offer payment plans - details below). Just  reach out . Recently I led my online students in an art journaling exercise centered on our being made of stardust. Clearly, that idea followed me to the easel, where this lovely showed up. Here’s the thing - this painting started out as a mistake. My concept of two horses looking off to the right was meant to include more sky and both horses in their entirety. I quickly realized that an 18x24 was not the right shape for this idea - so I scaled it up to a 24x36 panel (and  Earth and Moon happened). a few days later I grabbed the panel with the discarded sketch, intending to pop her into my paint-over pile, and was pulled in - she was not Earth and Moon, but she was significant in her own way. I couldn’t see what that was but I sensed it. Humoring my muse, I popped the panel on the easel and cr...