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| Celebration Cone mini print, 7" x 5". |
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| 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 |
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| 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
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| Chocolate ice cream prints of original paintings by Kim Testone |
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| 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 |
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| Join by September 30th to get the first signed mini print, Strawberry Scoops, mailed to you via snail mail this October. |
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| These open-edition mini prints are signed KimT on the front, and titled and signed on the back. Ships via snail mail! |
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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| Strawberry Scoops Open Edition Print now available. |
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| 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!
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| 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!
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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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| 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!).
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| 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.
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 prints available on my website. 10% of all sales will be donated to the ASPCA. |
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| Chocolate Vanilla Fudge Ripple Fine Art Open 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!
Happy Tuesday! For the rest of the month, you can get a super-sweet deal when you buy these two prints together, Chocolate Sauce and Strawberry Sauce, both borderless 16" x 12". These prints were based on two paintings that I did for my 2022 solo show at Hidell Brooks Gallery. For the reference photos I used, I actually made my own "soft serve" at home, which is tough to do, and pumped it into the cones using a pastry bag and decorating tip (since I don't have my own soft-serve machine!). But the I think the effect was pretty great, and then I added my own sauces to them, dripping down over the sides.
The prints are pretty beautiful, if I do say so myself, and would add a great pop of color to any space.
So save 20% when you purchase the two through the link here. Thanks so much for looking!
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| Cotton Candy Swirl, now available as an open-edition print. |
Hot off the press! I'm excited to announce that my Cotton Candy Swirl painting is now available as an open-edition print. I really loved painting the "swirl" on this one, and after many hours of work on getting the print just right, I'm super-happy with the final print result.
If you are looking for a really colorful, cheerful piece of ice cream art, this might be the piece for you. Thanks so much for looking!
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| First print, coming off the printer! |
Happy Thursday! I'm doing a short sale for the rest of this month when you bundle my two popsicle prints, Yellow and Cherry, both 16" x 12" borderless giclee prints on heavyweight museum-quality paper with Epson UltraChrome inks. I painted the originals back in 2022 for my solo show at Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were intended to be shown together, and I think it's just fun seeing the happy, bright colors side by side.
Bundling saves a lot for this, so feel free to check out the sales listing here. Otherwise, I just hope they make you smile! Thanks for looking!
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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!
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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 open-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 title 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!
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 ...
