Paintings With Soul

  Goldfinch, Goldfish make her yours Goldfinch, Goldfish, original acrylic on a deeply cradled panel, image painted around the sides makes framing optional, 30”x30”x2-1/2”, $2100 plus s&h. Link to purchase is below. Questions can always come  to me , or just reach out to share some love. I snuck off on vacation last week and found myself mostly unplugged, in a tropical setting, with absolutely no agenda. I allowed my head and my feet to wander, and soaked up all sorts of new textures and experiences to bring home. Goldfinch, Goldfish is the first piece since my return. She started as a drawing experiment overtop an older painting. Something about that first pass with the graphite hooked me, and I continued onward, working intuitively, repeatedly drawing, painting overtop, and then redrawing the birds. Create-destroy-rebuild is a key part of my process - it builds complex problems for me to solve at the easel while mirroring the insanity of the world at large. Essentially i...

  "Goldie," 24"x36"x1-1/2", acrylic on cradled panel, $2000 plus s&h when available, but first she is (hopefully) heading out to a juried exhibition, where her eligibility mandates she is for sale.   Reach out to me  or sign up for   my First DIbs club   if you are interested in Goldie and I can keep you in the loop. she got the thumbs up from my critique group today which means I came home, photographed her for this newsletter, and placed her on the varnishing table. Then tomorrow I will do the entry form for the juried exhibition I'd like to see her be a part of. This piece both gives me goosebumps and elicits one deep, cleansing breath. Like I mentioned, she is headed to out (hopefully to a juried event in September and then, if she remains unsold, to my solo show in October). She has to be for sale at both of those installations. Should she come home to me from those outings, she will be offered to my collectors club (the First Dibbers) be...

I took an online class on painting boldly and wildly in February, using florals as my subject matter. It kinda rocked my world. Some of my classwork is here,  class information from the uber talented Lynn Whipple is here . Prior to this, if you had told me I would EVER enjoy painting florals, I would have laughed in your face. And if a similar conversation did play out between us, I apologize.  I am loving painting flowers, cannot stop as a matter of fact, and am offering the first from my new series called "Hybrid Blooms." In these paintings you will find all sorts of blooms, realistic and fantastical, along with some unexpected guests. I imagine these paintings inside playrooms, nurseries, offices, and any space populated by a sense of humor. Let me know if you are interested in any of them, or if you would like to see a certain combination. Thanks for following along with my artwork, Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com ...

Pictured above are a few of the paintings I've completed as coursework this week in Lynn Whipple 's Big Bold Blooms Wild Painting  online workshop. For reference, the larger piece on the ground is 24" x 30". I'm working big, and bold, and a little wild! I learn so much when I take classes from other artists. Besides the obvious content, I get to see how others' teach and how they structure their lessons. And then I get to continue to learn by practicing the lessons on my own, inserting my own ideas and agenda, and determining which processes are keepers. I really need to reel myself in, though, this time around. I am so inspired by Lynn and the exercises (working with neutrals and layered drawings), my brain is going on fast forward, piecing together all sort of possibilities. I couldn't even sleep last night (yes, I know I am OCD). In between all of the above, I did some complete some serious work on a commission. But I also need to...

    From left to right: Koi I, II, III, IV, each 6" square, together measuring 6" x 24", acrylic on museum quality panel, depicting koi fish in a natural pond setting, all four panels together available for $699. Inquiries may come  to me .     I came home from last night's art guild meeting inspired and wanting to paint. Since I had to stay up and wait for a kid to return home, I poured a glass of wine and reached for my brushes. You can see what I worked on long past said kid's return  here  - including the work today.   Around lunch I got to a clear stopping point and decided to work on something entirely different - an idea I have had for quite some time.   So this afternoon was spent fishing.   The four panels are meant to stay together - and yet each of them also works well alone, as you can see in the individual photos below.   Once the originals sell, I'll offer reproductions on these fo...

"Koi I," from the Cherished series of paintings, 16" x 20", acrylic on museum quality panel, depicting some pretty muscular goldfish. This painting is headed to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan in September, and will be available for purchase there. Please  email me  if you are interested in it and I will be happy to make the necessary arrangements.   So, the whole time I'm painting Koi (and it was a conscious decision to break away from my regular subject matter), I'm thinking we choose the sort of water we swim in.    We cannot choose what we swim with (or against), but we can control where inside that school of fish (or sharks!) we choose to be and whether to tread water or move forward or turn around and return to where we started.   So it was these sort of circuitious thoughts that filled my head while I worked away.   And I'd love to paint more koi and goldfish!  Let me know  if you have a pond o...