Paintings With Soul

I've been working on cow paintings this last week. The ones above have just returned from their travels to New York.  Clockwise from left:  Dude, 9x12, $469, Girlie, 10x10, $499, and One+One, 8x8, $399. S&H additional, each painting is an original acrylic on museum quality panel. I will combine shipping on multiple purchases. I accept personal checks, paypal and payment plans. Inquiries may come  to me . There's a couple newer ones on my Facebook page - 16x20 canvases - up for grabs. Alfalfa and Bangs.   Reach out to me   if you are interested in either - they are specially priced at $599 each. Thanks, as always, for supporting my art, Kim   

"Dude," 9" x 12", acrylics on museum quality panel, depicting a delightful red and white cow (I am so not an expert on bovines - what breed cow is this?), $469 to the first one asking nicely. This includes s&h to a US address - email me . Today, Tulsa brought yoga with a lovely sunrise, inexplicably perfect macaroons and tea from Paris (in an Oklahoma based bakery), artisanal pizza served with Australian wine, some sort of street fighting that celebrates Cinco de Mayo, the Philbrook Museum (and a long overdue conversation with Bougereau, Sargeant and Henri), a lovely evening with a new friend enjoying her home and her fab art collection, both lunch and dinner al fresco, a gorgeous late afternoon stroll through an equally gorgeous historic neighborhood, loving on some most excellent dogs, a successful couple hours pushing paint, and cementing friendships with a few wonderful artists. In no particular order Have I said lately how much I love Tulsa...

"Baby Boo Peanut," Toy #16, 6" x 6," acrylics on masonite. The designers at TY are brilliant - first they brought us Beanie Babies, then Webkinz, and now Baby Boos. I love the huge eyes and the stuffie's proportions - makes for a fun subject to paint! This piece is $75, including shipping inside the US. Purchasing is as simple as  asking . SOLD (THANK YOU!) The Princess cleaned her room. And I got a bag of props.  Makes me sad that she is no longer playing with stuffed animals and toys. Well, perhaps sad isn't the right word - melancholy might be better. She's grown up now, giving me her hand me downs for the studio. At least I can still entice her in here every so often for journaling and listening to music. It's going to be hard when she starts high school this fall. I think it might be harder than her first day of Kindergarten. Perhaps I will secretly tuck a naked Barbie and a love letter from her Mommie int...

         From June 2011, "Baby Moo," 5" square, Golden Open Acrylics on artists' Ampersand gessobord, depicting a young Holstein calf. This painting is available for $239 - inquiries may come  to me .   Taking a walk down memory lane today, remembering a end-of-school-year celebratory trip to a local diary for ice cream.  We took lots of farm pics, and I hurried home to paint this little gem.   What were you doing this time last year? Two years ago? longer?   Thanks for following along with my artwork, Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com  

Every artist has them. The days when what we intend to happen at the easel just doesn't. Not because of the phone ringing or children who can't be hypnotized by the television. But because our muse isn't present. (Which reminds me, one of my all time favorite  TED Talks by Elizabeth Gilbert  is a must-hear for all you creatives).   I tell my students for every painting they see on gallery walls, to visualize at least 10 others in the trash. Because that is my reality. And it was especially apparent today.   My idea: a tender little painting of a calf and her mother, off in the distance of a vast field.  Doesn't sound like rocket science, does it?   So the underpainting got carefully painted, with warm, bold colors in the foreground, a fantastic yellow chosen to perfectly compliment the dark blue in the cows' bodies and a lovely pale blue bit for the furthest distance. I envisioned the cows as tiny little forms, perhaps a 1/3 of the width of this pane...

ORDER NOTECARDS/REPRODUCTIONS "One Plus One," 8" square, portrait of two cows, done in Golden Open Acrylics on an Ampersand Gessobord, $399 to the first one asking nicely. Inquiries, including starting that long-awaited discussion about your special commissioned portrait, may come to me . There are certain compositional rules in art, one being never put your focal point in the middle of your canvas. Another is not to break your painting up into equal spaces with the lines/structure of your composition. "Nah nah nah nah nah nah," is what I say. Sometimes, rules are meant to be broken. Many thanks to my friends Elizabeth and Doug Nelson for the sharing of their bovine muses. (I did get out of the studio recently and made the acquaintance of some longhorns and a handful of sheep, so stay tuned!) Thanks for sharing my artwork with your friends and family, Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com The newest fairy door in our garden, this one emerging wit...