Meet Artist: Kim McAninch

Longboat Key-based expressionist painter Kim McAninch credits her fine arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a 17-year career—which had her designing a wide range of products from wallpaper, fabric, and flooring to wrapping paper and dinnerware—with informing her current work. 

“My wallpaper and design career has definitely informed my art. I designed in just about every style in respect to interiors and pattern design, so I feel that I have the experience and knowledge to move in many directions. I enjoy now that there is an absence of a set of requirements for my projects. But the very same elements are at play. I am free to use my own innovation with no justification, to explore that balance between representation and design.”

Kim’s core subject is the landscape and she has also produced a series of flowers and figurative paintings in her signature style. “I create expressionist art. My color is often intense and non-naturalistic and my application is painterly. While the subject and degree of abstraction may differ, I see that my decisions are made with the same hand, so to speak. I want to offer more information, with less detail.”

A suburban Cleveland, Ohio, native, Kim moved to Pennsylvania in 2013, enjoying downtown Pittsburgh living and an urban collective studio space. In 2019, she moved to Siesta Key, where she had visited since1979. Coastal views continue to inform Kim’s work, now held in private collections around the world. 

In addition to her full-time painting career, Kim also teaches art classes locally in Sarasota, Pittsburgh, and at The Studios of Key Wes. She enjoys helping others discover the techniques of palette knife painting in oil. She is a juried member of the National Association of Women Artists and the Women’s Caucus for Art. Find Kim’s work online at kimmcaninch.com