My Blog is Moving to MakingHappyArt.com

Hey all, just a quick post today. I've neglected my blog for a long time. Part of that was because the functionality on Blogger is just a bit lacking. So I've moved the whole thing over to a Wordpress blog that I call MakingHappyArt.com . I still need to do redirects and adjustments as time allows, but I'll be posting much more there, including my painting process and musings about being an artist. You can even sign up to get notified every time I post. So I hope to see you over there! Or you can always just check in on my main website, KimTestone.com . Thanks as always for your interest in my work!

Here Comes the Sun, acrylic on panel, 20" x 30", by Kim Testone.

Whoa...Over 180,000 views on This TikTok Video of My Daydreamer Painting

More than 180,000 views, more than 40,000 likes, thousands of shares and hundreds of comments. 

I am so grateful to all of the wonderful people on TikTok who have enjoyed the close-up video of my latest Cookie Landscape painting, The Daydreamer, acrylic on panel, 24" x 24". There have been so many kind and encouraging comments that I haven't even had time to respond to them all. 

If you haven't seen the video yet, please check it out here. And if you're interested, take some time to read a few of the comments, because I think it's pretty encouraging when you see how many nice people are out there.

Also, by request, I'll hopefully be releasing an open-edition print of this piece soon. After that, the original will be part of my March 2026 solo show at Hidell Brooks Gallery.

Thank you again for all of your kindness and support! I have so many more paintings I want to do, and it is so encouraging to know they are starting to connect with people. Thank you.

- Kim 

New Month, New Mini Ice Cream Print - Join the Snail Mail Club

Celebration Cone mini print, 7" x 5".

Just a quick post today because it's a new month, so guess what? New prints on my website, and a new mini print coming out.

Join my Mini Ice Cream Print Club between October 1 and October 31 to get the 7" x 5" signed art print of my Celebration Ice Cream Cone painting sent to you via snail mail for just $19. More info on my website. Thanks for visiting!

Did I just drop my first 24" x 18" ice cream cone print? Yes, Ma'am!

Celebration Cone, an open-edition signed art print, available in 2 sizes: 16" x 12" and 24" x 18" (pre-order only right now for the large size; large size will ship rolled in a tube).

Something I've been asked a lot about over the years is, will you ever make larger prints? My answer was always maybe, someday. But I'm happy to share that I'm dropping my first larger open-edition art print of Celebration Cone, at a 24" x 18" size (pre-order only right now) as well as a 16" x 12". This print is signed and titled, and printed on heavy museum-quality photo-rag paper using archival inks for longevity. The print is borderless.

So if you'd like a big pop of fun and color on your happy walls, check out the new drop!

This will also be the featured print for my Mini Ice Cream Print Club for November, which you'll get if you join between October 1 and October 31. That is a signed, open-edition print at 7" x 5", which will ship via snail mail in mid-November.

Happy Art for Happy Walls! Thanks for visiting!

- KIM 

Last Day to Get the Strawberry Scoops Mini Print When Your Join My Mini Monthly Ice Cream Print Club

 

Join the Mini Monthly Ice Cream Art Print Club

Okay, I get it, I'm talking a lot about my new print club for my ice cream paintings. But you know what? It's kind of awesome. The prints are kind of awesome. And it's a sweet way to start collecting some really amazing art (if I do say so myself!) at an affordable price. Plus, the whole snail mail concept -- retro, super cool, whatever you want to say about it -- but I like to think it helps to connect us all in a way that social media and the internet just can't do. You can read some more about why I did this snail mail project here. 

So yeah, last day! Last day to sign up to get next month's print is always going to be the last day of the previous month. Get Strawberry Scoops sent to you in mid-October when you sign up by the end of the day today. 

As always, thanks for your kindness and support. Please share my happy art with anyone you think needs a pick-me-up, calorie-free. I do my best to bring some extra smiles into the world. 

- KIM 

A Design Alternative to the Fashionable Chocolate Brown Color Trend - Chocolate Ice Cream Art

 

Chocolate ice cream prints of original paintings by Kim Testone

Fun facts about me: I really love school. I have a bachelor's degree in drawing, a master's degree in arts administration, and I took a bunch of extra classes, too, including a number of courses in interior design. It's been quite a while, but I do try to stay up a bit on the trends. Every fall, there's a new trending list of colors that will be coming into style. These trending colors are in part decided by paint companies as well as organizations that specialize in color forecasts, like the Pantone Color Institute.

Anyway, so one of the color trends forecasted for the coming season is Chocolate Brown. Now, far be it from me to question what the color authorities say, but I painted a bathroom chocolate brown many years ago, and let's just say it was something I'm not ready to commit to again. Probably ever.

So if you aren't ready for chocolate brown walls yet, how about just putting some chocolate ice cream on the walls? Yes, I'm peddling my own wares, but seriously, these prints of my original ice cream paintings are pretty awesome. I put a lot of time into making them come out just right, with clean and modern white backgrounds, just like the paintings (which by the way, take me no less than 40 hours to complete, each). 

Whimsical, charming, totally inedible. But quite the home design statement and a whole lot of fun. So really, make your walls fun...and chocolate-ty. I work really hard because I want the whole world to smile when they see my work.

Happy walls for all. 

- KIM 

 

Why I Made a Snail Mail Art Print Club

Join by September 30 to get the first mini print drop, Strawberry Scoops, sent to you via snail mail in October.


Short Story Time: So a couple of weeks ago, I announced that I was creating a Monthly Snail Mail Art Print Club, where you can get miniature prints (usually around 7" x 5") sent to your mailbox every month via snail mail. It makes things affordable for you and for me and enables me to share my happy art with more people, which is always the goal. But that's not the only reason.

When I went away to college, my grandmother wrote a short letter to me religiously every week. It was never about anything particularly significant -- often about the weather, or what she and my grandpap were doing in the garden, or how they were excited for upcoming holidays. I was a very lonely 18-year-old, who had uprooted myself from my small-town, shy ways, and I had a difficult time adjusting. Opening my mailbox in the college mailroom and getting that flowery stationery from my grandma each week just lifted my spirits. It made me feel like someone cared. Though I never told her how much they meant to me, I saved every letter she wrote, and still have them decades later, in a carefully treasured box. 

The world is in a difficult state right now. We are all trying to navigate some very challenging times. Just getting a little boost of joy like a piece of happy snail is something that I feel can make a very small difference. I'm just an artist; I've dedicated myself to making happy art. So whether you get a painting, a print, or just follow my work on my website or social media, I want you to know that I paint from a place of sincerity, calling on all of the voices in my life that have loved me and taught me to look for the happy moments.

I appreciate your interest in my work. I hope it lifts you up. I hope you see through the dark times and look for the light. I hope you take this as encouragement to stay positive and do something kind today, because that type of behavior is ultimately what will really change the world. 

Or hey, maybe you just like ice cream and want to see it on your desk or walls! I can help with that. 

- KIM

My Latest TikTok Video of Me Painting Just Surpassed 10,000 Views

Check out the TikTok video here.

Hey folks, I'm happy to share that my latest TikTok video just passed 10,000 views - with over 1500 likes and 65 saves. Now, that might not seem like much in the grand scheme of the social media art world, but for someone like me, it's amazing! I'm so happy that this latest painting -- The Daydreamer, 24" x 24", acrylic on panel, still in progress -- has connected with so many people! Whether they enjoy the colors, the theme, the appearance of something that looks three-dimensional but is actually flat, or just something they can't quite put their finger on, having that many people enjoying my work makes me feel like these new cookie landscape paintings of mine are heading in the right direction.

That is quite honestly a tough thing for an artist -- to know if there's anyone out there who will actually like our work or connect with it in a meaningful way. We artists, we're kind of loners, making art in the quiet little corners of our homes with almost no one else seeing it, until we begin to share things in places like social media. 

Taking on this new body of work is quite a big risk for me, personally and professionally. I've been painting ice cream and other traditional still life for a long time, and while I'll still keep painting those on occasion (after I finish the cookie landscapes for my March 2026 solo show at Hidell Brooks Gallery), trying something that I think is totally unique to me, that gets better with each piece I paint, and that unleashes a creativity in me that I can't quite describe, it's a good feeling. 

I am very grateful for every like or encouraging comment. Thank you for your support as I continue to grow and build my work. I've got a lot planned!

-KIM

Follow Me:

Kim Testone Contemporary Art (@kimtestoneartist) | TikTok

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Join My New Mini Monthly Ice Cream Art Print Club - A Happy Little Snail Mail Project

Join by September 30th to get the first signed mini print, Strawberry Scoops, mailed to you via snail mail this October.   

Well, folks, I'm deep in the midst of new painting projects for my 2026 show at Hidell Brooks. I've been sharing some images of these new paintings, which I call cookie landscapes, so I hope you've been following along on social media and will continue to check out my new pieces!

In the meantime, though, despite loving my work, I'm feeling a little isolated in my studio, and so I've been considering ways to share my art with more people and develop some deeper connections with my followers. This week, I'm very excited to announce that I'm launching a monthly snail mail art print club, featuring mini prints of some of my most popular ice cream paintings from recent years. 

My work has always been about joy and nostalgia, and introducing an affordable snail mail way to collect my art just seems like the right fit. Who doesn't love cheerful snail mail? The occasional card, letter or small gift can just lift your spirits, in a way that social media really doesn't. 

So if you enjoy my ice cream paintings and would like to get a little bit of joy and color in your mailbox each month, please be sure to check out my member sign up page. For $19 a month, you'll get a signed mini fine art print featuring one of my ice cream paintings, encased in a protective plastic sleeve, and a short letter, sharing a bit about how or why I created the piece, or what's going on in my art life. It ships in a simple stamped envelope, which helps keep costs super low.

Whether you want to keep them, collect them, or share them with others, I think you'll find that they're just so cute and sweet you can't help but love them! 

Thanks as always for your kindness and support! Let's save the world together with some happy art!

Sign up by September 30th to get the first mini print, Strawberry Scoops, which will be sent out in mid-October. 

These open-edition mini prints are signed KimT on the front, and titled and signed on the back. Ships via snail mail!

  

How I Go From a Sketched Idea to a Fully Realized Painting

 

A quick pencil sketch from my sketchbook, that became my in-progress "Butterflies in the Sky" painting below.

Still a work in progress..."Butterflies in the Sky," acrylic on panel, 24" x 24". 

The sketch at the top of the page here took me all of about 30 seconds, with a few notes added in the seconds afterward. I generally keep my sketchbook near me, whether I'm doing household chores, preparing meals or painting. My ideas appear as out-of-the-blue epiphanies, as a flash, and I get them down as quickly as possible, then move on with my day. 

When it comes time to decide what I'll be working on next, I flip through my sketchbook, and consider which of my sketches are worthy of being developed. Then it becomes a more refined color sketch, and after that, for my Cookie Landscape paintings, I bake and decorate the scene, photograph it, and proceed to the many hours -- often hundreds of hours -- of the painting process. 

I'm really loving working on these Cookie Landscapes. They enable me to be endlessly creative, and hone my technical skills as well. From across the room, they really look quite magical, quite dimensional (despite being totally flat), and that challenge of being able to create a painting that isn't just fun and beautiful, but one that can also trick people into thinking that there is some sort of dimension or texture, it really excites me as an artist. 

If you like these works and want to see more, I post my daily progress frequently to TikTok and to my Instagram stories. If you want to see full process videos, I post those, too, when the pieces are done. You can check out my latest one, showing the process of designing, baking, decorating, then painting "Here Comes the Sun" on my Instagram. 

Thanks so much for visiting! 

Want to see how I make my Cookie Landscape Paintings?

Hey folks, if you are interested in following the daily progress of my Cookie Landscape painting series, which I'll be debuting at my March 2026 solo show at Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina, make sure you check in on my TikTok or my Instagram stories to see the latest (remember that the Instagram stories are only up for 24 hours, so to see all of the clips, check my TikTok). 

Check out the latest video, where I show you some insights about the complicated planning stages for the cookie/frosting paintings. In case you are curious, there's no AI of any kind here! Just my brain and a bit of imagination creating a good old-fashioned sketch and color sketch, followed by me baking and decorating a real cookie/frosting scene, then spending many many hours painting it. 

Like this one, still in progress: Butterflies in the Sky, 24" x 24", acrylic on panel.

Check out my latest behind-the-scenes video if you want to see the crazy process I have for making the models for my Cookie Landscape paintings. This one, Butterflies in the Sky, is still a work in progress!

I hope these paintings bring a little bit of joy into your life! Thanks as always for your interest!

Stock Up On Ice Cream Prints During the Annual Sunshine Sale!

Hey all, a little over a week left for the Annual Sunshine Print Sale! Buy any 2 limited-edition prints -- including any ice cream prints and other sweet treats -- and get 1 FREE. Great way to stock up on holiday gifts! 

Sale ends July 31. Discount automatically applied at checkout. 10% of all print sales donated to the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

Thanks so much for visiting!

New Strawberry Scoops Ice Cream Cone Print Available

 

Strawberry Scoops Open Edition Print now available.

Available in three print sizes: 16" x 12", 12" x 9" and 10" x 8".

So excited to release the print of my Strawberry Scoops Ice Cream Cone, based on my 2025 painting. Technically I began this painting several years ago, and then set it aside because it was too difficult, I thought. But I came back to it this year with new eyes and new skills, and it's one of my absolute favorites. 

Be sure to catch it while it's on sale during my Sunshine Print Sale (Buy 2 get 1 FREE, ends July 31; discount automatically applied at checkout). 

Hope it makes you smile!

SUNSHINE PRINT SALE - Buy 2 Prints Get 1 Free - Ends July 31

 

Featuring Two Scoops of Vanilla, fine art print, 16" x 12". 

Hey folks, it's time for the biggest sale of the year, just in time to keep you cool this summer! During the SUNSHINE PRINT SALE, buy any 2 prints, get 1 FREE. Yep, that includes all the ice cream prints, as well as many of the other sweet treats featured on my website. 

Discount automatically applied at checkout. Always free FedEx shipping within the continental U.S. 

Sale ends July 31. 

And 10% of all sales still go to the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Thank you again for your kindness and support!

Preparing for a New Show of My Cookie Landscape Paintings

 

Here Comes the Sun (Cookie Landscape Number 1), acrylic on panel, 30" x 20". Check out my kind-of-awesome TikTok video of the painting process for this one.

 

Hey all, it's been a while since I've posted an update, but I just quickly wanted to share that I'm currently deep in the midst of preparing for a March 2026 solo exhibition at Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I'll be premiering my new Cookie Landscape paintings, like the one shown above. You can check out a brief overview of what it is that I'm doing on my website, but be sure to follow me here on my blog or on my various social media sites this year as I begin to share more. I am so excited to share the beautiful, crazy creations I'm making, and I really hoping they'll bring a bit of much-needed joy, hopeful nostalgia and optimistic dreaming into the world right now. 

Will I ever return to painting ice cream? Sure! I think I'm pretty darn good at it, and it's something I really enjoy. So look for more ice cream pieces next year. There are a handful of my ice cream paintings still available via Hidell Brooks Gallery. 

Also, just a quick health update: You may be aware that I fell on the ice in my driveway in February and shattered my left wrist (the non-painting one), so badly that I needed surgery. I had 30 staples in my arm after the surgeon pieced the shattered bones together with plates and screws. If you are very brave, you can check out the x-ray here, or watch my TikTok video (GRAPHIC WARNING) with an actual photo of my arm before the staples being removed. It has been a very painful recovery process, but I am happy to report that I am probably 85% of the way better. Some things are still in the works - I'm not as good at typing with my left hand right now, nor can I scratch my back very well. But mostly, I'm getting there! I appreciate all of the kindness and positive thoughts! 

Broken Wrist Surgery Update - And I'm Starting to Paint Again!

Post-surgery x-ray of my wrist from Monday. Holding together with plates and screws. Those squiggly lines are the 30 staples I had removed, along with some stitches. You can see how I shattered the top of my forearm bone in the wrist area. I actually didn't know how bad the break was until after the surgery, nor did I realize that I had 30 staples in my arm until Monday. No wonder I was in so much pain!

If you read my last post, you know I took a bad, albeit quick, fall on the ice in my driveway in February, and broke my wrist, which required surgery. It was my left wrist, which is not my painting wrist, but it has been pretty painful, on top of a bad case of the flu. In other words, it's been a rough month.

But today I'm happy to report that my surgery sutures came out on Monday, and I'm now wearing a removeable brace instead of a cast, which enables me to do the necessary stretching exercises four times a day on my wrist, plus finger exercises, to try to get my range of motion back in place.

So even though I'm still very much in recovery, the pain is much less, and I have been able to start painting again. Here's a quick photo of a painting I'm not almost finished with, "Balance," 30"x20", which I had started and titled ironically before my fall.

Biggest lesson: Be grateful for the things you have, the people who love and support you, and for the days when everything is going okay. I'm excited to be getting back to being me again. Thanks for your positive thoughts as I heal!

In-progress, Balance, 30"x20", acrylic. Being able to paint again just makes me feel more like me.

Fell on the Ice, Shattered My Wrist & Caught the Flu - When Making Happy Art Goes Wrong

 

Shattered my left wrist, which has had to be surgically repaired. At least I'm right-handed for most things, like painting.

Warning: This post is about my recent injury and may gross people out. Please feel free to skip it and return when I start posting my happy paintings again!

Two Saturdays ago, our driveway was quite icy, so I thought I should put something down to help melt it before starting my day. It was two steps, not even two steps, more like one and a half. My left hand was in my jacket pocket, both my feet slipped out on the glassy ice surface, and crack, straight down on my left wrist. Ow, I said out loud. It hurt but I almost continued on with my task until I looked down at my wrist and knew something was very wrong. Maybe it’s dislocated, I thought, so I pushed on it and heard crunch crunch crunch. 

If there’s any big blessing in this, it is that I broke the left wrist, but I am right-handed. Thank God!

Two hours at urgent care, but they said it was too bad to set. I got sent to the trauma ward at city hospital. About 9 hours later, including 30 minutes in a makeshift traction unit, I was told I’d need surgery. 

At the ER with my fingers suspended from a makeshift traction unit, in an attempt to bring my long bone back into alignment. 30 minutes, really painful, but it did move the bone quite a bit in the right direction.  There is a weight attached to my arm, pulling things downward, while two of my fingers are looped into tight gauze. 

I hadn’t initially realized the extent of injury, but let’s just say it was very bad. Broke the long bone, which became severely out of place and was manually pushed back with the help of an ER doctor and the makeshift traction unit; then shattered the piece at the top of the wrist into a bunch of shards. Now, two weeks later, I have been stabilized, the surgery seemed to go well, and I’ve been stitched back together by a talented surgeon and a lot of plates, pins and screws.

Not gonna lie, it’s been painful most of the time and incredibly uncomfortable the rest. And somewhere in the process I caught a bad case of the flu, which I also gave to my husband. It severely sapped our energy among other symptoms. We’re on the mend, but it’s been rough.

I’m sharing this not because I want anyone to feel bad for me (although if I can save someone else with a cautionary tale of being overzealous on the ice, that’s good enough for me), but because I want to share what’s been important to me in the process: the help and support of my husband, without whom I cannot open a tuna can among other things; the love of my two elderly cats, one of whom lovingly tried to lick my cast and has kept watch over me every night since my accident, the support of my family, and my desire to start painting again. 

When things get taken away from you, when you can’t function at the same level you used to, when everything, even very simple things, becomes harder (like the fact that I can only type with one hand right now), you see more clearly. I’m not well enough yet, but I am trying to rest, eat right and strengthen myself enough to get back to my painting. I don’t make happy art because everything in my life is always perfect. I make happy art because it’s not, but the art brings me joy and lifts me up when I need it. I hope the pieces I’ll be putting out in 2025 do the same for you! That's the biggest thing I'm dreaming of right now.

Be back soon! 

Remember to check out my latest painting, Bee Dancing with Daisies, 12"x12", acrylic on panel, on view as part of the 2025 Richeson75 Small Works Show at the Richeson School of Art & Gallery in Kimberly, Wisconsin, through April 2. See all of the finalists online here. It's my first finished trompe l'oeil cookiescape, but I'm excited to do more!

Watch my process video here. Feel free to share!

New Prints of Old Paintings - Toy Cars and Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich

Toy Cars, new 8" x 8" limited-edition print now available. Based on a 2016 painting.

 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, new 12" x 16" limited-edition print now available. Based on a 2020 painting.

Happy weekend, everyone! I'm happy to announce that I'm releasing prints of a couple of old-school paintings I did - Toy Cars (from 2016) and Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich (from 2020). Both of these limited-edition prints are now available on my website.

Hope they make you smile! Thanks for looking!
 

Why I Paint Sugary Treats But Don't Eat Much Sugar - and a Tease for My New Project

 

Raspberry Sorbet, acrylic on panel, 16" x 12". Prints available on my website.

I recently donated a print of my Raspberry Sorbet to my old hometown as part of an art auction fundraiser. My mom said people were very complimentary (which is always nice to hear!), but that one of her friends said, "She must really like ice cream!" I don't think this is an uncommon reaction, but the truth is the three things I like most about working with sugary foods for my paintings the most are: 1. the sculptural quality, 2. the nostalgic quality, and 3. the colorful nature of it. The reality is I don't eat much sugar, but I find beauty in the foods that connect us to our past and incite a bit of imagination. 

Years ago, around 2012, when I began painting, I painted a body of work based on the concession areas of the baseball spring training stadiums my husband and I frequented. I made six very detailed, very complex oil paintings in all, featuring concession stand workers essentially doing their jobs or lost in a moment of thought. A couple were of stadium attendees. The paintings were good, some even won some prizes at local art shows. One was reprinted as a 20-foot-tall banner that hung at the exterior entry of an art organization's gallery for a year! I really enjoyed the work, and I still have all of the paintings in my personal collection (at my husband's request). I sold some prints (I may make them available again this spring), and I progressed a lot as a painter. But the thing I struggled with the most was taking photos of people for the references. 

Photographing places and people just wasn't pleasant for me. It made me feel like people were staring at me, wondering why this crazy lady was taking photos out in public. Occasionally, I got yelled at. I also couldn't control the lighting, or the crowds. So what I gradually ended up doing was moving to still life painting, and eventually I learned that I could control every aspect of the painting in my kitchen (and never fear getting yelled at!). 

One of my early paintings, around 2013, 24" x 12", oil on panel. Featuring a half-empty crowd shot of attendees to a Yankees spring training game in Tampa, Florida. Still in my personal collection.

Very soon, I'll begin sharing images of the new body of work I'm working on. And while it, too, is sugar-based, like the ice creams I'll continue to paint, the work is primarily about having something I can sculpt in my kitchen and create a bit of magic with on my painting panel. I really feel like it's the culmination of my work, from the baseball stadium paintings up through now. I'm building a world, the world in my head, the beautiful, happy, crazy thoughts that blend my visions from childhood to the state of things today. 

I'll begin by sharing these new pieces to my email list first. If you'd like to get the first previews, please feel free to sign up for my VIP list. Help me make some magic this year, and share a little happiness with the world. 

The 2025 Annual Art Mailer from Hidell Brooks Gallery

Such a nice way to start off the new year! I just received the annual mailer from Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina. So pleased to see one of my ice cream paintings right in the middle, among so many wonderful works by other represented artists. Thank you to the ladies at Hidell Brooks! It will be a good year, with a lot of new stuff coming...