Like many children, Kim Santini liked drawing animals.
Growing up outside Grand Blanc, her father, a hunter, had Brittnay bird-hunting dogs that he kept outside in a kennel.
‘He didn’t have the sentimental attachment that I have,? she said.
Now, her own dog roams freely throughout Santini’s Lake Orion village home under the watchful eyes of other furry friends hanging from the walls.
Her family’s home doubles as her art studio, where Santini has painted the portraits of an estimated 800 dogs and cats.
While most daily activities like teeth brushing are banal and tedious, Santini has a canine approach to the quotidian, a project of painting a dog a day that has culminated not only in a blog, but also a book, ‘Painting a Dog a Day-The First Year,? which she will be selling copies of at Margot’s Gallery in Oxford on Dec. 7 from noon to 4 p.m.
The book recaps the first 15 months of completing five pet portraits a week. Over 200 paintings are reproduced in the book, representing more than half of the daily artwork the artist created from October 2006 through December 2007.
Santini said she was always drawn to the arts.
‘I was the kid who could draw as soon as I could hold a pencil or a crayon. I was always drawing on my spelling tests,? she said.
After graduating from Grand Blanc High School, she attended Michigan State University, where she received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in painting and a BA in art history.
While at school, her subject and style changed’the childish thrill of drawing animals gave way to the more heady enterprise of large scale abstract painting.
‘It was a new challenge for me to build a composition out of color and shape,? she said.
She and her husband eventually moved to California. Moving to the other side of the country gave Santini the opportunity to reflect on what ‘home? is, and what objects evoke it. She began to do smaller paintings of gardens and yards.
Then, when her oldest son, Dominic, was born, Santini hung up the paint brushes for about six or seven years.
‘I packed up my studio and turned it into a nursery,? she said. ‘We decided to change the pace of our lives.?
She worked as a project manager for a software company for a spell, but would eventually return to art once her kids were more grown. And, one day, she said she suddenly found herself home all day.
‘I started painting again,? she said.
But she didn’t return to the abstract experiments of her youth. Instead, she turned to what she had started out painting: dogs.
‘It kind of came back full circle,? she said.
At first, she would just paint the dogs of friends and families.
‘Then, people kept seeing them and asking ‘Will you do mine?? and it sort of grew from there,? she said.
Prices for her commissioned paintings begin at around $150. The paintings are done in acrylic on a board, and usually feature the animal in close-up.
Santini is also active with local animal rescue shelters. If you get her to do your doggie’s portrait, you can have some of the payment donated to Oakland Pet Adoption Center and other Michigan-based shelters.
Find Santini’s blog at http://www.paintingadogaday.blogspot.com.