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!
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| Featuring Two Scoops of Vanilla, limited-edition 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!
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| Toy Cars, new 8" x 8" limited-edition print now available. Based on a 2016 painting. |
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| 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! |
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| Mini Strawberry Sauce, 7" x 5", acrylic on panel. |
Happy Thursday! I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! I've just finished six mini ice cream paintings that were just delivered to Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I thought I'd share them here. It was really nice to go back to painting some small pieces after spending months painting big ones.
Check the Hidell Brooks website for availability. I hope they make you smile!
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| Mini Birthday Cake Cone, 7" x 5", acrylic on panel. |
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| Mini Cookies and Cream, 7" x 5", acrylic on panel. |
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| Mini Twist, 7" x 5", acrylic on panel. |
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| Mini French Vanilla, 7" x 5", acrylic on panel. |
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| Mini Cherry and Chocolate, 7"x 5", acrylic on panel. |
One more thing: For any original art sales this month, I'll make a personal donation of 5% of what I make to the ASPCA.
I hope you'll also consider donating directly to the ASPCA or your favorite animal charity this Giving Tuesday! Thanks so much!
- KIM
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| My two cats, ages 19 and 17-1/2. |
Happy Friday after Thanksgiving, everyone! I have a special announcement. I've given myself a Christmas gift of sorts. It's been a dream of mine to make my art not only bring smiles to people's faces, but to also have a more measurable impact on some of the causes I care about. I've decided that from this point forward, 10% of all of my print sales will be directly donated to charity, and right now, that charity is the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).
For me and my husband, our cats have been such a huge part of our lives. Both of our girls, shown above, were diagnosed with kidney disease in the last year and a half. They require a great deal of love and care, and we are happy to provide it for them. I am so grateful to everyone who has supported my art, especially now, as it has helped to pay for prescription food, medical bills and other expenses associated with keeping our kitties healthy and happy, enjoying their long and peaceful lives.
Not every animal is loved and care for, though, and that is why the ASPCA has a special place in my heart, acting as a voice for the voiceless. I encourage you to visit their site and discover more about what they do, and consider donating directly to them. And, if you buy any prints from me through my website, you'll see a message indicating that 10% of the sales will be donated to the ASPCA. If you buy anything through my Etsy store instead, I'll make a donation directly based on the sale.
ALSO, THROUGH THE END OF DECEMBER: If anyone buys an original painting of mine through Hidell Brooks Gallery, where all of my originals are carried, I'll personally donate 5% of my proceeds to the ASPCA.
AND FINALLY, AS A SPECIAL END-OF-YEAR THANKS TO YOU: You can save an extra 10% on the prints, on top of the 10% that will be donated to the ASPCA. Just use the code HAPPY10, through December 9th. You can use this on my website or in my Etsy store.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, that you take a few moments this busy weekend to appreciate what you have, and that you consider giving back in some way to those who need it and aren't able to stand up for themselves.
Thank you again for your continued support as I keep making happy art! I've got some new things in the works, and I'm pretty excited to be able to bring them to you. Happy Holidays!
- KIM
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| 19 different Limited-Edition Prints available on my website. 10% of all sales will be donated to the ASPCA. |
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| Chocolate Vanilla Fudge Ripple Limited-edition Ice Cream Cone Print. Size: 19" x 9.5". Printed on heavy-weight museum quality paper with archival inks. |
I'm happy to announce the release of my latest print: the Chocolate Vanilla Fudge Ripple Triple Scoop Ice Cream Cone, based on one of my original 2024 paintings. You can see me paint the original piece on my youtube channel here. Please note that the print itself is slightly smaller than the original painting. But it's still the tallest print I've ever made!
If you've followed my work and seen me talk about my prints before, you may remember that I'm very very particular about my prints. They aren't exact replicas of the original paintings, in part because I remove the original painted signature to better showcase the pencil signature, and I make sure the background is a super-clean white. So none of these are scan-and-go prints. I spend many hours editing them to perfection, trying to make each look as close to the feeling of the original painting as I can. I want them to look great on your walls, and so I treat each as their own work of art. I cut the paper by hand (which is super-tricky!), and ensure the colors are as close as possible to my original vision. It isn't easy. But that's the way I want things to be!
As for the original painting, I really loved working on this piece, in particular the fudge ripple, which was complicated but worth the time. Again, check out the video to see if you can figure out how I did it! Keep in mind that, as usual, I sculpted the original cone for the reference photo by hand in my kitchen. No stock imagery! It's always a bit of a mess, with a lot of trial-and-error and a lot of drips on my floor, but a few hundred photos later, and I find something I can work with.
So for all of the chocolate lovers out there, this print is for you! Thanks for visiting!
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| Sunshine Sherbet, acrylic on panel, 50" x 40". Soon to be available via Hidell Brooks Gallery. |
It's been a little bit since I've posted to my blog! I've been working furiously on some new large paintings (and some extra surprises), as well as taking care of two elderly kitties whom I just love so very much. It's a lot, and I just haven't had time to post, but I'm really happy to share this very cheerful giant ice cream cone painting that is on its way to Hidell Brooks Gallery. At 50" inches tall, it was quite daunting to work on, but I really enjoyed the colors, movement and sort of sculptural effect of the piece. It's important to me to get those really deep shadows of the folds of ice cream as well as the detailed icy highlights, but that extra little section of the three colors striped together in the middle, with a sort of wave, just gave this piece so much personality. I just felt like it was an explosion of sunshine, and I sincerely hope it makes you smile!
I have one more giant piece I'm working on that may take a bit more time. But I'm also working on six tiny ice creams, all 7" x 5", just for a change of pace to return to my roots of painting smaller art. I'll be sharing those soon. Thanks so much for visiting!
Happy Tuesday! Here's a short painting demo video showing some of the steps I used to paint a 16" x 12" Cotton Candy Swirl Ice Cream Cone, acrylic on panel. When taking reference photos for this one, I happened upon this one lucky scoop that included that lovely bullseye swirl. Since I was quite sure I'd never be able to scoop something like this again, I had to paint it!
The original piece has been sold through Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can click here to see what other original paintings I may have available. Thanks for looking!
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| Cotton Candy Swirl, acrylic on panel, 16" x 12", by Kim Testone. Sold. |
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| Newly framed paintings from Kim Testone. Available at Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina. |
Pricing and availability here. Both are 16" x 12", acrylic on panel. Thanks for visiting!
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| Fudge Ripple, acrylic on panel, 16" x 12". Available at Hidell Brooks Gallery. |
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| Orange & Yellow Sherbet, acrylic on panel, 16" x 12". Available at Hidell Brooks Gallery. |
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| Strawberry Crunch Bar Limited-Edition Print |
Happy Tuesday! I've just posted a new limited-edition print of my 2022 Strawberry Crunch Bar, 16" x 12", to my website. You may have noticed that I finished a different, larger strawberry crunch bar acrylic painting this year, shown in a previous post. Because I used reference photos from the same photo session, you could consider this one the sequel to that painting, since the ice cream has been eaten a bit more, but likewise it was a super-complicated painting to do. Strawberry Crunch Bars are just so colorful, cheerful and nostalgic, however, that I think it's worth the extra painting hours to complete one.
Hope it makes you smile! Limited to 50. Thanks for stopping by!
Hope everyone is having a good weekend! I just thought I'd share the video I've just posted to my new YouTube channel of the steps I used in painting this year's Strawberry Crunch Bar, acrylic on panel, 24" x 18", available at Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina.
This was a super-complicated piece, and there isn't really any way to make it easier to paint. Just piece by piece by piece. I actually started on this piece in May 2023, then abandoned it for a full year, thinking I'd taken too much on. But I decided to persevere, and here it is! I hope you enjoy watching! Thanks for stopping by!
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| Strawberry Crunch Bar, acrylic on panel, 24" x 18". Available at Hidell Brooks Gallery. |
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| Cookies and Cream 2, 16" x 12", 2022, SOLD. New print available at kimtestone.com. |
Happy Thursday! Just a brief announcement that I've posted a new limited-edition print of Cookies and Cream 2 to my website. The painting that this print is based on was originally done as a 16"x12" acrylic commission on panel. The print is a borderless 16" x 12", so sized exactly as the original.
As you might know, I use my own reference photos 99% of the time, which gives me complete control over making a subject that fits my vision. I've found that when using cookies and cream ice cream, store-bought ice cream has almost no sizeable cookie pieces. To fix this, I buy a separate package of Oreos, break them up and add some in while I'm sculpting and photographing the reference. It might not be reality, but it is how we imagine things to be, and it certainly makes for a much happier and more nostalgic painting!
One extra note: I actually put quite a bit of effort into my prints, so I like to call them artist-remastered. The background is clean and white, and I have removed the original painted signature, to better showcase the penciled signature and limited-edition number of the prints. I want to make prints that both capture the original painting as closely as possible and that act as their own individual piece of art on your wall.
Thanks for stopping by!
Here are some short clips of me painting the Orange & Yellow Sherbet Cone, acrylic on panel, 16" x 12", showing the progression from beginning to end. My paintings always consist of layers over layers, clarifying the shapes and colors as I go. I hope you enjoy! Thanks for watching!
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| Orange & Yellow Sherbet Cone, acrylic on panel, 16" x 12". |
I thought I'd share a quick post this morning, to get myself back in the groove of sharing on my blog. It's just some thoughts on finding inspiration for your painting, or at least where I find mine.
There's a very famous saying from the amazing artist Chuck Close: "Inspiration is amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work." I do certainly believe this. I don't wait for lighting to strike before I start on a project. I work every day no matter what my mood is. But when I think about inspiration, it's not so much about being inspired to begin an individual project. Instead, I try to open myself to inspiration all day every day, so that the ideas and designs start to naturally percolate in my little brain. Then, once I'm started on something, I try to find a bit of inspiration around me to help me keep things going.
For me, finding ways to get inspired every day doesn't mean traveling far away or having grand experiences. I'm a collector, I like vintage items, and so I like to surround myself with things I love in my home so that each time I see them, I feel a little bit uplifted. Though it may be surprising, I actually have a lovely collection of vintage items from McDonald's.
Now, I haven't eaten McDonald's food in many years, but I love the toys and marketing promotions from decades past - long past, like 70s and 80s. I have pleasant and happy memories of the occasional trip to McDonald's with my family, or when my aunt worked there in the late 70s and early 80s and would bring the Happy Meal Toys home to my sister and me.
Not too long ago, my husband bought me a vintage McDonald's mug, from 1977, that was exactly like a mug my grandpap used to have. I suspect it was something my aunt had brought to him, but I always remember it being in my grandparents' kitchen.
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| Vintage 1977 McDonald's mug. |
When I was working on the reference image files for the Orange & Yellow Sherbet Cone, this mug was sitting on a shelf within my eyesight. Not only did the colors coordinate exactly with my painting, which ultimately helped me select and edit the final reference photo in my Photoshop program, but the cheerful presentation kept reminding me to keep the piece happy and cheerful as I painted it, so that every day it seemed like it was saying, "Good Morning!".
Anyway, I hope the painting makes you smile and maybe feel a bit uplifted. Thanks so much for stopping by! Painting is available at Hidell Brooks Gallery.
Hey there, I've put together a little video slideshow of 16 of my most recent happy ice cream paintings, from late 2023 to today. It's nice to see them all together because it helps me to see how far I've come.
Some of the paintings are very recent and still available. Most of them have been sold. Please feel free to visit Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina, either online or in person to see what's left.
Thanks so much for visiting! Hope they make you smile!
A quick pencil sketch from my sketchbook, that became my in-progress "Butterflies in the Sky" painting below. Still a work in pr...
