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 

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

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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!