Night Train | Cookie Landscape Trompe L'Oeil Series | Open-Edition Print

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• Based on an original acrylic painting by Kim Testone
• Borderless print
  
• Open-edition print
• Signed Kim Testone on the bottom right, titled on the bottom left "Night Train", in pencil
  
• Individually printed in the artist's studio
• Giclée print on heavy-weight museum-quality paper (308gsm 100% cotton rag smooth Hahnemuhle paper with archival Epson UltraChrome inks)
  
• Unframed
• Presented with a solid, contemporary white background, as originally painted.

Mini prints of "Night Train" are available as part of my Sweet Escapes Mini Art Print Club. Sign up by September 30 to have one sent to you in October. 

The original painting is available here. 

My holiday painting "Night Train" was based on a real-life sugar cookie/frosting model that I baked and decorated and then replicated with acrylic paint in the trompe l'oeil style. This means that the painting is virtually flat, but it is painted in a way that looks amazingly three-dimensional and highly realistic in its details. The print is a very close representation of the original painting. 

"Night Train" features a whimsical gingerbread train, pushing forward fast through the frosting snow of night. The sugar cookie stars are being blown backward through the dark blue frosting sky, and the puffs of smoke from the odd-looking smokestack of the train are also trailing. The candy wheels are also angled forward, exaggerating the forward motion of the train across the chocolate and vanilla wafer cookie tracks. In the foreground, a small cookie is decorated with a sweet little bunny, waving and entranced by the motion of the train. The candy windows of the train are backlit, as is some of the train and the exterior border of the scene, showing life in the night, hidden away in the train, illuminating the imaginary environment.

This piece was inspired by my childhood, living near the railroad tracks and the rare passenger trains that would pass by -- especially the night passenger trains. My family and I always had to wait at the tracks in our car to cross back to or from our home. I'd often site in the back seat and try to count the cars of the freight trains, but the passenger trains? My imagination took off! I'd wonder about all of the people inside the train, where they were going, what made them choose a train instead of other more boring transportation. Passenger trains, to me, were magical. 

Like all of the piece in my trompe l'oeil foodscape series, I wanted "Night Train" to stand for hope. I think it's a beautiful magical moment filled with great rushing motion and a flurry of activity, yet incredibly peaceful and quiet. I imagined that all of the people in the train were so happy, just to be able to enjoy the train and the night sky.
 
This piece has a bit more variety of food objects in it than my others: gingerbread train, cookie stars and bunny, and the wafer cookie tracks with the candy wheels. It's also the first piece I used lights as a special effect; when I built my real-life model, I turned out my main room lights and laid Christmas lights around parts and behind parts, which gave me an excellent reference for how things would appear lit in this fictional world. 

For those who wonder why I use cookies and frosting as the basic for these foodscapes, I really wanted the works to be accessible to a wide range of people. Using food elements, and particularly recognizable sweet treats, allows an easier entry point for viewers to enjoy and thoughtfully consider the work.

You can watch the full design and painting process for "Night Train" on my TikTok here.