Kimberly Santini is formally educated as a painter, with a BFA in Painting and a BA in Art History, but worked a traditional career path for over a decade. She set up a home studio in 2001 and began with commissioned portraiture. In 2006 she committed to daily painting, a creative practice she continues today. Santini brings her unique voice to the easel with an unparalleled sense of color and spontaneity. She was honored as official artist of the 2015 Kentucky Derby, spent 18 months (2017-2018) creating an expressive figurative series of nearly 100 pieces, and is currently painting intuitively using allegory as a gateway to exploring abstraction. A firm believer in community involvement, Santini is also in leadership roles with the Romeo Guild of Art and The Detroit Society of Women Painters & Sculptors.
She is enamored with her materials and the trace of the artists' hand. Line, form and the properties of paint drive compositions filled with intriguing passages built from linear elements and arbitrary color. Layers build a dream-like scape, yet all is rooted in an expressive core with a personal vocabulary of color, intriguing marks, and form. Santini paints a beauty much needed in our world. Her paintings define our relationship with others and build connections between possibility, intentions, and the trace of our actions.
