Del Mar Beach, created with Corel Painter, by Kim Treffinger.

San Diego photographer Kim Treffinger is an award-winning, formally-trained fine artist. She has received wide recognition for her digital painting techniques and has long been known for her success, passion and enthusiasm across a range of artistic mediums. This year she was featured as a contributor to The Art of Pregnancy Photography by Jennifer George, published by Amherst Media.

Kim has a formal fine arts background, and graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor degree in Design. I asked her to talk about the path that eventually led her to combine painting and photography in her work.

Kim Treffinger: I studied art and design in college, but I didn’t find the direction I really wanted to go with it. A few years later after becoming a mother and living overseas for a few years I dove into learning to paint watercolors, and soon entered shows and started winning awards. My paintings were usually based on my photography. But it didn’t yet occur to me to do it for a living. Then I was going through a divorce and became drawn to working with glass. There was something therapeutic about breaking glass and putting it back together. I also loved what happened to the light when it came through the different colored bits. I worked on glass mosaics and then fused glass and cast glass. I heard that HGTV was casting for people to do demonstrations for their show Crafter’s Coast to Coast. I sent my portfolio in and literally within fifteen minutes I got a call to schedule me for a taping. They asked me to demo two projects. It was a great experience. That was five years ago and it has aired a few times since then. But the glass bug started to wane after I began cutting myself pretty badly. I became phobic about glass and that was that.

Morgan, by Kim Treffinger

Shortly after that I was reading an article online about a couple doing children’s portraits, and it was like the biggest light bulb in my life just went on. I immediately looked at who was doing portraits in my area, and contacted one woman to ask her for more information. She met with me and set me on a path to learn what I needed to learn to get started myself. It didn’t take long before I discovered that I could combine my painting skills with my photography in a way that I had never imagined.

Digital Image Magazine: Tell us how you got into Painter.

Kim Treffinger: I had bought Painter at version 6 many years ago, but I could never get it figured out and was always losing the palettes. I could only take it out and play with it occasionally, and I always ended up frustrated. But then I discovered Painter 9, and watched 11 hours of videos that came with it from John Derry and it got me rolling right away. Soon I discovered Jeremy Sutton’s DVDs, and took a workshop with Marilyn Sholin and Bruce Dorn. Learning about the extra brushes and how to arrange your palettes was a huge help. I also took a workshop from Cher Pendarvis and John Derry. Then a couple of years ago I was asked to teach a Painter introduction to some professional photographers in my area, so many of them now have the “bug” too. I think Jeremy Sutton’s book Painter X Creativity: Digital Artist’s handbook is great. He is a very methodical and thorough teacher and covers just about everything you need and want to know. Lynda.com is another great resource for training in Painter without the heavy investment in the DVDs. I also enjoy Painter Magazine and their online forum.

DIM: How does Painter fit in with your photography business? Do you find that it helps you sell larger prints?

KT: Painter is an important part of my business in terms of setting me apart from the other run-of-the-mill photographers, especially the weekend shooter types. They are not bothering to go to this level. I display my Painter work when I do art fairs and festivals, and it gets attention very quickly. I have some painted images on handbags for samples of products I offer and I always get requests from people to buy them, even with other people’s images on them. When a client is interested in having an image painted they generally do tend to go to 16×20 or larger, as the work tends to compress at the smaller sizes and just doesn’t read like a painting.

DIM: One question a lot of photographers have is: how do I sell digital painting to my customers? How do YOU describe Painter so that your customers understand what it is?

KT: I describe my Painter work very carefully. I want to make sure they don’t think of it as some kind of filter where you just push a button and the whole thing is done. I do start out by saying I was a painter for a long time before getting into photography, so I have that head start with them. Then I explain about my digital pen that is very much like a traditional paint brush with hundreds of brushes that simulate traditional brush strokes. Sometimes I even tell them there are different brushes for each part of the painting– hair, skin, eyes, fabric etc. I tell them how every bit of it is painted over by hand. They usually seem surprised and impressed by that. If I was still using a mouse to do Painter work I think it just wouldn’t have the same artist connection for me. I wouldn’t want to tell my clients I made their painting with a rock.

Treffinger's bold brushwork is evident in this lovely, warm portrait.

I don’t present Painter work to all of my clients, but when it seems appropriate, I will frequently do a quick “prepaint” on one of their images to be included in their slideshow presentation. I have found that most of them do not have the imagination to think of having one of their images painted even after seeing all of my other Painter work in my studio. They need to have the idea shown to them. Some clients will buy the Painter work because they saw the preview of it first, and they generally buy larger than 16×20.

DIM:Any advice to someone wanting to learn Painter? Would you recommend Painter to other photographers?

KT: For people who are just learning Painter I would say to immerse yourself in traditional painting first. Get art magazines and see what is selling. I love American Art Collector. Go to art galleries and see paintings in person. Learn about different painting styles and see what you are most drawn to. Consider taking a traditional media painting class if you have time. Definitely look at different Painter instructors and see how they approach it. They are all different and I learned something from each of them. Take a little here and a little from there and then let your own style come through. I think painting has to be a passion for someone to do it well. It can be frustrating and tedious at times, so it’s not for everyone, but when you get a really good one there is nothing else like it. I still get chills when I tell people how much I love what I do.

You can see more of Kim’s work on her website.

Books mentioned in this article:

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