Paintings With Soul

"Freya," painted sketch, image roughly 4-1/2" x 9" on a 9" x 12" page, commissioned portrait of a Doberman Pinscher. This portrait has been sold (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!). However, if you would like something similar, I offer a limited number of painted sketches each year, and inquiries may always come my way  - I can add you to a waiting list. Taking a Cue From a Master  Carol Marine , a daily painter of tremendous renown, spends a lot of time traveling and enjoying her family. And one of the things that enables her to do this is what she calls "painting ahead" - she prepares her daily paintings ahead of time, and schedules her blog posts for those days when she may be on the road/unplugged from the internet. And this is what I did yesterday and last night - I stole her idea, and painted ahead. Why? Well, for one, I'm supposed to be teaching tonite (Thursday the 18th) (I say supposed to be because class is outdo...

"Phia," painted sketch, image roughly 7" x 6" on a 9" x 12" page, commissioned portrait of a Doberman Pinscher. This portrait is sold and I offer a very limited number of painted sketches each year, but inquiries may always come my way . Welcome to Summer!  School let out and we bolted for the hills! Irish Hills, that is! We spent a wonderful long weekend with the Kelly clan, fishing, boating, swimming, toad hunting, balloon animal making, feasting, pictionary-ing, playing volleyball and whiffle ball, toasting smores around the campfire, and generally making the sorts of memories that will be cherished a long, long time. Meanwhile, I'm adjusting to my summer schedule - starting the day out with a few household things, spending my afternoons with the kids, and whiling away late nights in the studio. I love being able to sleep in, take the dog swimming in the creek, and relax with The Caped Crusader and The Princess. I know they...

"Pinscher Butt," 8" x 8", Golden acrylics on an Ampersand Gessobord. This newest painting is a back side portrait of a little puppy, either a Doberman or a Miniature Pinscher, I'm not certain entirely. The painting is available for $399, which includes s&h inside the US - and returning collectors get 10% off. Inquiries may come  to me . Please and thank you! I had a hankering for puppy butt, but my archives weren't delivering anything terribly exciting. So I went to Morgue File , an online copyright free photo library, to see what options I could dig up (pun intended!). And I found little Chewy! And a couple others that I'll take on shortly as well. (Keep in mind that when you use a resource like Morgue File, there is a possibility that other creatives may choose to work from the same reference material.) You can see a handful of  i n process images here . Yes, the still life materials are packed away for a little bi...

"Lexi," 9" x 12", commissioned portrait of a Doberman, acrylics on museum quality panel, private collection. Inquiries may come to me, though, as I can work this sort of magic with YOUR dog. Lexi has hiked many a trail in Big Sur and played in the Pacific waves, and despite recently losing a leg to cancer, she embraces life and the outdoors with the same energy and delight. It was important to include that in her portrait, along with a hint of Mother Nature. I'm waiting on pins and needles to see if Lexi's Mom approves of this one. I don't want to curse myself, but I think it might be one of my best portraits to date. None of that matters, though, if Lexi's family doesn't agree. Off to my presentation this evening at the Romeo Guild of Art - I'll be talking about using social media as a marketing tool. And tomorrow I have something extra special planned - I can't wait! Thanks for following alo...

ORDER NOTECARDS/REPRODUCTIONS "Jake," 5" x 7", a Doberman dog portrait, done in Golden Open Acrylics on ampersand gessobord, $289. Inquiries may come to me (and thank you!). Jake was one of my Valentine Dog a Day GiveAway finalists . His Mom has first dibs on the painting, after which he (the painted version) will become available to the next in line. Jake has a reputation for bringing love and happiness where ever he goes, so consider yourself forewarned. Thanks in advance for sharing my artwork with your friends and family, Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com SPRING BREAK It seems awfully early for Spring Break, but the kids are off and ensuing insanity - more so than usual - has settled on the Santini household. Meanwhile, I'm wearing rose colored glasses and occasionally peering out from behind them, watching for sunshine and the tiniest signs of encroaching green. And Finnigan, who's been accompanying The Caped Crusader on his daily runs no...

It's been another wild day here in the Santini household. The kids all got on their respective buses (albeit one was 1/2 hour late, and my son insisted that school had been cancelled and everyone at the busstop just didn't know it), which was a true blessing. Because the dog got sick. He threw up mountains of yech in his crate during the night, and this morning was curled up in one corner, trying to avoid it all. At first I just thought he ate something that didn't agree with him. Spent the entire morning cleaning up - I'd let him outside and he'd throw up, come back in all shivery, go to his crate, get sick, go back outside, get sick again - it was a never ending cycle. He was just miserable, and I was feeling rather helpless in my inability to make things better. Shortly after lunchtime there were traces of blood in his vomit and he had bloody diareah. So it was off to the vet with a couple ziplock baggies full of stained snow and a dog who now was clearly in dist...

“Abigail,” 6” x 12”, Doberman puppy pet portrait in acrylic on canvasboard, private collection (thank you very much!). I love getting pictures in the mail. And it’s even more fun when they are puppy pictures! I got a nice little stack of them a few weeks back depicting Abby and it was all I could do to stick to the schedule and make her wait her turn. This is a difficult painting to photograph, being so very dark and richly toned in the shadows. The camera added a lot of contrast and blue to the painting – I tried to make some corrections in photoshop (my photoshop skills are improving slowly but surely!!). In real life, Abby’s fur reads like silk, and the light in her eyes is tender. This will be a tough piece to ship off to it’s new home! Thanks as always for taking the time to look at these paintings. I have gotten several notes this week about how the dog-a-day paintings make your work days a little brighter. I am happy to hear that – I remember myself how tough it can get when cha...

“ZoeyAnn,” 6” x 12”, mixed breed pet portrait in acrylic on canvasboard, $135. Inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com . Proceeds from the sale of this painting will be donated to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. We’ve all heard of dog allergies, but what about a dog who’s allergic to human dander? That’s our ZoeyAnn here, an adorable, young hound mix with an incredibly long list of allergies. She’s at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, receiving a variety of remedies. The drier air seems to have helped (ZoeyAnn is originally from New York), and she’s had some dietary changes, and is also undergoing treatment to help boost her autoimmune system (now it is possible that I didn’t quite interpret this last point clearly enough – but there’s a good debate and a very interesting article on allergies in dogs that you can read at http://network.bestfriends.org/MessageBoards/TopicPopup.aspx?g=1a0fd2cd9f2f4c5dac3274d536f3e9c9&t=12560 ). Thank you to new collector Laurie Smith...

I took a break from the Granny Squares painting to get some work completed on a number of commissions. You see, in addition to these daily paintings , I also do commissioned portraits of specific animals, along with other paintings that I enter in exhibitions across the country. Both of these other sorts of paintings carry various deadlines – perhaps a submission deadline for a particular show, or a birthday or other special event where the portrait is to be unveiled. It’s a constant juggling act, making sure the appropriate paintings are completed in time and delivered to where they need to go. Which leads me to today’s piece. In a perfect world, there is some overlap between the daily paintings and the commissioned portraits. That’s where today’s piece comes in. It was a study done in preparation for a larger painting. I wanted to try some new color combinations for the typical Doberman coloring – black with tan markings – and had some success with quinacridone crimson and indanthro...

The sun was out for the first time in a few days, which really sent my spirits soaring. After a long walk and some Frisbee with my dog, I was eager to get painting. To make the most of the natural light, I set my board up with 4 different canvases, and started working on a variety of faces. I dug through my references, and the ones that spoke up this morning were all darker colored dogs, with light glinting off their sleek bodies. I wonder why…? Here’s the best of those 4 boards – a Doberman pinscher study. You can see the looser brushwork around the edges of his face – those are some of the initial lines I laid down when drawing him onto the board. Those lines usually get rubbed out as the painting progresses, but today I left them in. They add a sense of energy and movement to the moment. “Doberman Study,” 8x8, dog portrait in acrylic on canvasboard, $80. Inquiries to ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com . Thanks as always for looking. And for sharing these paintings and the dog-a-day pro...