For Her Eyes Only, from The Saratoga Series ~~ Kimberly Kelly Santini

"For Her Eyes Only," 5" x 7", the latest addition to my "Saratoga Series" of paintings, portrait of a Thoroughbred Racehorse, done in Golden Open Acrylics on an Ampersand Gessobord (see my reference material at left). Add this painting to your collection for $289. Inquiries may come to me.   Yesterday, Three Chimneys Farm (a Thoroughbred racehorse breeding facility) shared a photo of a 2 year old filly on their Facebook page. I was immediately struck by her unique markings (see the skull shape in her blaze?), and wanted to paint her.   I did a little research, and discovered she was currently in Saratoga, New York - even handily won her first race yesterday!   I sent a emails to friends who were in the Saratoga area - were they planning on going to the track soon, and if so, could they keep an eye out for her?   Meanwhile, this afternoon, I pulled up my own references (I wanted to paint a gorgeous dark bay wearing a plaid cooling sheet, a horse I photographed during my recent visit to Saratoga), and what did I discover?    Photos of For Her Eyes Only, being hotwalked after her morning bath, just ahead of that dark bay in the plaid cooling sheet.   Serendipitous, no?   Thanks, as always, for looking at and sharing my paintings with your friends and family, Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com   PS Might I add that there was no attribution to the photo as originally posted on FB. With that in mind, I opted not to include it by means of anything other than a link to the source, since I had no means of acquiring permission or acknowledging the photographer.     COMING UP ~~ PAINTING WORKSHOP "Mixing Color Not Mud": Saturday, October 8th, at the Orion Art Center in Lake Orion MICHIGAN. Email me to get on the early bird list.

My (copywritten) photo, taken at Saratoga, in July 2011.    Copyright Respect   I can hear the questions now - why didn't I just paint from the photo I first saw on Facebook?   Easy.   I didn't take the photo.   Which means I didn't have permission to use it, even if I was only using it for something derivative like a painting.   The photographer automatically owns the copyright, whether said photographer is professional or amateur. (Copyrights don't just apply to authors/artists.)   That said, I can only use photographs as reference material with explicit permission from the photographer.   No matter where I come across those images.   Magazines, blogs, websites, even Facebook, are all off limits. It doesn't need to have a copyright watermark on it to be protected, either - if you didn't take the photo yourself, it belongs to someone else.   So unless you have written permission to use a photo - or even a portion of it - steer clear.   Life is too short to spend time dealing with accusations of copyright infringement.