Paintings With Soul

  Due to Blogger allowing Ai scraping/training, I will no longer be posting the back stories of my work here. This information is available through Substack and Patreon , both platforms that respect creator content and intellectual property by blocking Ai. Thank you for your interest in my art, Warmly, Kimberly Santini www.KimberlySantini.com

check her out, make her yours Profusion 2.0 (the first Profusion got a glow up), 20x20, acrylic, pure imagination and Mother Nature on cradled panel, $1900, available through my website. Profusion 2.0 will arrive wired and ready to hang. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. I’ve had the Bear+Mask paintings hanging together in the studio. This is a wonderful way to see passages with fresh eyes and allow the collection of work to inform other decisions. It’s also a great way to identify subtle shifts (or some not so subtle ones!) to consider as the pieces talk to each other. After a little time, Profusion (the first one) felt a bit like two different paintings competing for attention. I began thinking about how to resolve this - which of the two different parts was the most exciting to me? and then how do I to bring the other passage in cohesively..... This led to a demanding series of revisions - going slowl...

check her out, make her yours Cirrus, 24x20, acrylic and pure imagination on panel, $1500, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. Some pieces evolve and take shape fairly quickly, others take their darned sweet time. This one took about a year. When this happens, I think it has something to do with my ability to understand the concept and then apply the proper technique/sensibilities so as to do it justice. The idea behind paintings like Cirrus show up and get me all tingley to make them, and along the way I struggle with doing so because I haven’t yet learned what they require. Cirrus required a tamping down of color (I changed my color choices in January to help me figure out how to do just this), a better understanding of basic value shapes (something the Bear+Mask pieces have been guiding me towards over the past 5 months) and reveling in the relationship between ha...

check her out Discerning, 23-1/2x24, acrylic and pure imagination on panel, sold (thank you so much and a very warm welcome to my new collector). I dreamed of Wolf a few weeks back, so invited her to the easel in a similar fashion to Bear - emerging from the darkness, encased in a shallow depth of field, with a direct gaze. This format brings the subject right into the viewer’s space, something that is important to me. It helps me to understand and better respond to the paintings when I know who they are meant for. These recent paintings have been for Little Kim, who imagined she was friends with all the animals. She wove some pretty solid stories about deep connections to animal spirits, and it’s those narratives I dip into in the present day from the easel. They are still here inside me, fueling each painting. As always, I am so grateful for your interest in my work. Thank you so much for your support. Big Judgement-Free Love, Kim. PS Payment plans on request for purchases greater th...

  It’s been 20 years since I began Painting a Dog a Day , the daily pet portrait project that went viral before virality was even an internet thing. It positioned my signature loose and personality packed style at the forefront of pet portraiture at a time when consumers were first purchasing online products. My unique-at-the-time model of partnering with animal centric non profits, helping tell their story while also raising much needed funds for operating expenses, was adapted by many other small business owners. And the practice of painting daily continues to serve me well 25 years into my journey as a professional artist. Last month my online pet portrait workshop opened to great acclaim - we had a countdown to the first day and the students got immediately to work - I can’t stop beaming over what they are creating, it is amazing!   Shifting from independent work alongside gallery and teaching commitments to portraiture requires a serious mental shift (which is one of t...

check her out, make her yours Thistle, 16x16, acrylic on cradled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1450, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. This painting is an empath watching a loved one ache, knowing the best they can do is listen, sit with and love them through it. I think we’ve all been there at some point or other…. In lighter news, my online pet portrait workshop opened yesterday - students from all over the world are eagerly introducing themselves and setting intentions for the course. This evening is our zoom launch party (the 23rd) at 7pm eastern. I’ve opened this session up to students and the public - I’ll show over 100 of my portraits, talk about concepts and compositions, share some tips culled from the last 25 years of commission work, and get us situated to push some paint. You don’t have to be enrolled in the cla...

check her out, bring her home Room to Grow (Sun Bear), 18x24, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1900, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. Originally Sun Bear was stacked with Butterfly and Moth. I loved the idea, but the execution felt predictable. I value unexpected elements in art, and wasn’t seeing any of them in her early beginnings but for one little exciting butterfly passage, which frankly wasn’t enough to support the entirety of the surface. So she sat in the studio and watched me paint a number of Bears, complete with Masks of Butterflies and Florals, while waiting for the concept to evolve inspiration to hit. And a couple days ago she asked for her own mask, one threaded with roses. “Yellow, please,” she said, “to match my collar.” Meanwhile, Sun Bear introduced me to Moon Bear. I have a Spirit Be...

check her out, bring her home Summer Solstice, 20x20, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame, painting will arrive wired and ready to hang), $1900, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. This painting got her start last week at my friend’s house . She (my friend, not Solstice) invited a group of us to gather and paint in her garden ( her roses killed me) . It was a glorious day. Then she (Solstice, not my friend) came home to the studio for more work, informed by photos I took that first day along with bits and pieces from my own garden. I toyed with the concept of symmetry - in a square painting, a balanced design becomes critically important. Initially I was reaching for a mirrored take on that, but it was too easy to look at and move past - it didn’t grab the viewer and ask them to stick around. So I found a middle ground - some symmetry, some differences. Here...

check her out, bring her home Vortex, 20x24, acrylic on cradeled panel (no need to frame), $2400, available exclusively through my website. S&H inside the contiguous US is on me. Hawaiian, Alaskan and Canadian shipping available at additional cost. What does it mean to wear a mask? how does peering through one change the subject? how does viewing a subject wearing one impact the viewer? what is Bear saying when she adorns herself with a maelstrom of leaves and blooms? With each of these masked paintings, more questions surface. I don’t have any answers, but I sure am enjoying unearthing them. I welcome your thoughts. There are layers of florals masking Bear - lilac, wisteria, roses, heather, geranium and tulips. Together they are a mixed bouquet sworling with a fantastic mysterious energy. Vortex is on my website for direct purchasing, along with viewing in a room or right up close. I am so grateful for your interest in my work. Thank you so much for your support. Big Red Tulip...