Artist Kim McAninch is learning how to bring her art to Longboat Key

Kim McAninch didn’t plan on making art on Longboat Key forever. 

The painter, who’s been coming to Longboat Key since she was 14, originally planned on buying a house near Manhattan as her next step in life. After an adventurous vacation last summer down to the Key she’s always known, that changed. 

“We thought we would just come down here for six months, and then go up there, and then this all happened,” McAninch said. “We bought a place and we’re moving in in a couple months.” 

What she’s really forward to the most is having her own studio in her new place, which is really just the garage. It’ll be her ninth studio in about six years, as she’s tried a little bit of everything. McAninch is a contemporary landscape painter who works in oil paints primarily, but plays with all mediums. She wants room to play, and alone, in her home, with no commute and a cup of coffee in hand, might be just what she needs. 

“I've had all types of studios in the last six and a half years, but this one seems like I could be messy,” McAninch said. “I could have a lot of things going on at the same time. I'm looking forward to that day.”

McAninch began painting full time in 2012, after a career based on her surface pattern design major from the University of Miami. She designed wallpaper, shower curtains, fabric, tablecloths — anything that needed an allover design, basically. 

“My parents told me I couldn't be a painter or a ceramic artist or a jeweler — you need to pick something where you'll make money,” McAninch said with a laugh. “2012 was when I started painting full-time. I was very jealous of people who did that as a living and I thought, ‘You know what? That's what I needed to do.’”

Figuring out how to get back to painting wasn’t easy, so she began with a monthlong residency in Cape Cod to work on her composition and the other finer points of art literacy. She thought composition was her weakest point, since she came from a field where the design was all-over, with no discernible entry or exit points for the eye to travel. Unlearning that was difficult, she said, but the Cape Cod residency was a jumping-off point for her style, which she acknowledges is very influenced by the coasts she loves. 

“I think there's some part of observation that has occurred everywhere that I've been that has something to do with how these turned out,” McAninch said. 

She loves working with palette knives, using them to draw, add paint or take paint off. The knife work stands out in her art, with thin lines carved out amidst spots of thick paint and swiped-on stripes. Bonus: Knives are way easier to clean than brushes, which McAninch appreciates. 

“I don't work from photographs,” McAninch said. “I start, I don't really know where it's going. I don't know what colors that it's going to end up to be.” 

During the coronavirus pandemic, McAninch was sheltering in place with her husband and grown children as they worked from home together. They’re currently in a rental place, and though family time is much appreciated as they enjoy the beauty of their new home, the amount of space leaves much to be desired. 

“Yeah, I’ve got like, this much room,” McAninch said, holding her hands about a foot apart. “I can really adapt to any amount of space that you give me. I've gone from huge places to small. So this has been an interesting time.”

She’s been creating and creating the whole time, working in the space she has. Luckily, she’s had success selling her art during the pandemic. McAninch has always known the importance of the business side of her art, using multiple channels to promote herself and her work. It used to be about a 70-30 split, with business taking the edge, but as she’s gotten better at managing it all, she’s enjoying a life of 50% art and 50% business. 

Her current work is what she’s most excited about, she said. It’s a series called “Disrupter,” which she’s developed as she’s seen a change in her work towards more energy. Her question is: What makes it energetic? Those elements are the disrupters. 

“Without it, you would say, ‘There’s nothing disruptive. It’s stagnant,’” McAninch said. “I’m trying to get more energy into my work … (The Disrupters series) has an unlimited size to it.”