Juggling ~~ Painting a Dog a Day by Kimberly Kelly Santini

I talk a lot about the animals I paint and my process, but I rarely blog about other behind the scenes work. Probably because it's not nearly as exciting as the painting process, but I may be biased in that regard! Nevertheless, people have the perception that I step into the studio and paint, blissfully, for hours at a time. It couldn't be any further from the truth! When I do paint, it is (mostly) blissful, but that's only a fraction of how I get to spend my days (or rather, my working hours!). It's a one woman show here for the most part. The reality is that I spend the majority of my days solo here in the studio, chipping away at marketing campaigns, dealing with the accounting side of things, staying on top of inventory control, keeping up to date with client communication, building lesson plans and coordinating teaching opportunities, and building an exhibitions and activities calendar. I also head up hardware management. In a prior life I worked with computers and was very comfortable taking machines apart, reading code, and deciphering technology. Not so much anymore! I've been feeling creaky these last couple weeks as I work my way through determining new backup configurations and solve my recent data storage issues. But it remains blissful when I've crossed enough tasks off my to-do list that I can justify moving across the room to the easel. After picking up a paintbrush, the day's stress just melts away. And hopefully I get at least a couple hours of this before the kids come home from school. Thanks, as always, for supporting my artwork! Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com PS We're in the homestretch here with respect to this month's 10% newly booked commissions. The project has to be booked during this January, but can happen any time during 2011. Shoot me an email if you are interested! I booked 9 new portraits last week - let's see if we can't match that this one!! Above, Tucker(ed Out) From January 2010, "Tucker(ed Out)" is a 12" x 14" custom portrait of a lab mix. This painting is currently in a private collection (THANK YOU!), but reproductions and notecards are available. For those of you new to Painting a Dog a Day (insert big welcome here!!), I share animal artwork at least 4 times each week. The paintings are published initially via this electronic newsletter, then updated to the Painting a Dog a Day blog several hours later. (FYI, the blog is archived and all 4+ years of postings are always available for browsing.) Some of the Dog a Day paintings are commissions and therefore sold. Others are available for purchase on a first come basis. Notecards are available as soon as the painting is dry. Reproductions become available after the original piece has sold. Both notecards and reproductions can currently be ordered through FAA. It's as simple as browsing the galleries and choosing the images you like. With over 1000 paintings in the project, I am trying to make things as simple as possible - there's nearly 100 images to shop from on FAA now, with more coming.