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If you look at a painting of a mountain or lake or sky and then gasp because of its beauty, it’s often because of an amazing portrayal of light.
Two of the all-time masters at portraying light were JMW Turner and Claude Monet. You’ve probably heard of them 🙂
“Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight”, JMW Turner, 1835
Turner was known as ‘the painter of light’, and was one of the greatest British landscape painters of his time. In the above work, take a look at Turner’s portrayal of the moonlight on the clouds and in the water, and the firelight and its reflections. Amazing!
“Haystacks (Sunset)”, Claude Monet, 1891
Twenty years after Turner’s death, Claude Monet founded Impressionism. Impressionism was all about the portrayal of light, and Monet would sometimes work on a dozen paintings a day; each one depicted a slightly different aspect of light.
Monet would continue working on these paintings over the course of days, switching from one painting to the next when the time and light were just right.
“Haystacks (Sunset)”, above, is one excellent example. What do you think of those sunset purples and reds? They just take my breath away.
“Morning Light”
Oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
This last work (very humbly put after the two above it) is mine. It is here as an example of a painting that was intended to capture the morning light over a beautiful little lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.
Painting light was (and is) the focus of a great many artists. Other masters include Vermeer, Valazquez, and Rembrandt.
Who are your faves? Drop me a line at holly.vanhart@gmail.com and let me know.
Most of us may not feel like geniuses, but everyone has a special quality or skill that is unique to this world. That is the ‘genius in all of us’.
This new floral painting “The Genius in All of Us” features large abstract tulips in red, purple, blue, yellow, and orange. The tulips represent and celebrate the diversity of our individual strengths.
What are your strengths?
My strength is painting. I suppose another strength is being a jack-of-all-trades generalist that includes some of the business skills needed to be a full-time artist and entrepreneur. (Still working on those others!!)
btw, the Genius in All of Us was purchased as a surprise birthday gift for my new friend Heike by her husband.
The Genius in All of Us
Hanging in their beautiful home in Silicon Valley, California
Heike is thrilled with her new painting, so I’m thrilled too 🙂
Interested in seeing other available floral and tree paintings? Or learning about commissions (custom paintings)?
Or learn more on these pages – About, Press (Huffington Post, Professional Artist, ABC News, and more), Testimonials.
In “Top Fifty Questions”, I’ll answer the top questions I’m asked as an artist. (These questions are usually asked at cocktail parties and other fun social events.)
I’ve been painting my whole life, with one hiatus while in college.
As a girl I made many types of art . . . I painted, made ceramics and did crocheting and calligraphy. My Mom was an artist; she gave us lessons and let us use her top-quality art supplies. (Thanks Mom!)
In college, studying engineering was all consuming and my art was put on hold.
After graduating, I worked in high tech and pursued painting passionately as a hobby – taking dozens classes, reading thousands of books and articles, forming an art critique group, and painting every spare minute.
Now, as a professional artist, I paint every day, all day (every weekday + some weekends). And every day I learn something new.
My art education will never be done. That’s a huge part of the fun 🙂
btw, the above painting is Amid the Scent of Roses. Interested in seeing how it was made? Here’s a short video for you . . .
Hi there.
Every once in a while in my VIP emails, I feature a collector of my work. Here’s a fun fact. Two collectors of my paintings are both named Yvonne and they are both CEOs of San Francisco-area companies. What a coincidence!
Meet Yvonne Linney –
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At cocktail parties and other fun social events, people often ask me questions about life as an artist.
Click here for the Top 50 Questions and answers! (And videos!)
Holly Van Hart
Click here for the Top 50 Questions
The daisies in ‘Dream Field’ represent our dreams, some dreams bigger than others, some growing and developing, others on the decline, and all of them dancing around through the turbulence and beauty that we call life.
Here’s wishing that our biggest, boldest dreams come true!
Here’s a video on the making of Paradise Found –
Questions? Interested in hanging this painting in your home? Contact holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Click here for purchase info.
Like a cat, I love feeling the warmth of the sun on my skin. Do you?
Come step into this sun-soaked forest . . .
This painting is hanging in my home, but it could be hanging in yours 🙂
Would you like to see this painting in person? Email me for a studio visit.
To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Free shipping in the continental US.
Friends,
Thank you! Because of you, my life is filled with warmth and friendship and color and fun. You inspire me! Don’t know what I’d do without you and your amazing support.
For a fun flashback, thought you might like to see a few photos from the installation of my 2014 solo show at the Triton Museum of Art . . .
With Preston Metcalf, Chief Curator at the Triton Museum of Art, on day of installation of my solo exhibition. Photo by my artist friend Marie Cameron.
Preston wrote an essay about my work. If you’re curious what it says, click here.
Oh, the glamorous life of an artist! With Bryan Callanta unloading 17 paintings from the Uhaul truck into the Triton Museum of Art. Photo by Marie Cameron.
Feeling gleeful after all paintings were unloaded and delivered unharmed to my favorite contemporary art museum 🙂 Photo by Marie Cameron.
Photos are compliments of Marie Cameron, a wonderful friend, artist and photographer. Thank you Marie!
Warmly,
Holly
If you’re in the Denver area, please come see my latest paintings at Mirada Fine Art gallery.
I’m proud to be working with this prestigious gallery. It has been selected for many awards, including American Art Awards “Top 25 US Galleries”.
Vibrations in Time (on wall, right)
Mixed media painting by Holly Van Hart
At Mirada Fine Art
Autumn Cruise
30″ x 40″ oil painting on canvas by Holly Van Hart (sold)
‘Autumn Cruise’ is about the majesty of the mountains and the allure of the alpine lakes. This painting includes two cruise boats ready to take us on a tour of the lake, up closer to the mountains.
The unusual textures in ‘Autumn Cruise’ (for example, in the sky in the upper right, and skirting the mountains in the upper left) are there to remind us of nature’s unseen forces – potential rainstorms, winds, avalanches, floods, and hungry bears. Nature is beautiful and alluring, and also commands the utmost of respect.
Ready to cruise up the lake? Sure, it’s a crisp, clear autumn day and looks like a safe bet. (If there were dark clouds overhead, then it would be a different story.
btw, if you’d be interested in some art freebies (free art books and more), click here.
Many many layers (and weeks) later, here is the finished painting . . .
So you can see the details, here’s a ‘flyover’ of Ideas Everywhere –
And here is how Ideas Everywhere looks in my home –
‘Ideas Everywhere’
This painting is sold. To see available paintings, click here.
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In “Top Fifty Questions”, I’ll answer the questions I’m most frequently asked as an artist (usually at cocktail parties and other fun social events).
Some of you have been curious about my work-day as an artist. Believe it or not, I’m working more hours per week now than I did in high tech. (I left a fun and fulfilling career in high tech for an even ‘funner’ career as a full-time artist.)
I have a home studio, and am in the studio painting every day from 8 am til 3 or 4pm. Every day. (Well, every weekday, and sometimes on the weekends.)
Chuck Close, a famous American painter, offers a great perspective on this. “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. . . . All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.”
I buy into that. Through the process of painting every day, I challenge myself to create my very best work. And to keep learning and experimenting.
An artist’s job is not done when the art is created. Part of the role is running your own art business, with your website, blog, marketing, galleries, exhibits, etc.
I try to dedicate my daytime to painting, and take care of the business stuff in the evenings. (When my sons are doing their homework, I’m doing mine!) This takes many hours, on most days. Having come from a long business career, I like this part of the job too.
With Magnetic Dreams, I was aiming for a moody painting. The scene is imagined, drawn from a love of the ocean and memories of many captivating ferry rides.
The calm of the quiet mountains is juxtaposed with the energy of the watercolor techniques and drips. (This is a mixed media painting on canvas, using acrylic paints, but painted with watercolor techniques.)
Here are some detail pics –
To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Free shipping in the US for VIP members.
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‘Two Left Hands’ by Holly Van Hart (sold)
‘Two Left Hands’, from my Rodin series, was just purchased by my new friend Elisa. Elisa saw this painting and decided to buy it immediately; she has a totally cool story behind the decision.
When Elisa was growing up, her Mom took her many many times to the Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford University. If you haven’t been there yet, it is an amazing place to visit, day or evening or night.
Her Mom loved (and still loves) to look at the hands of the sculptures. Rodin created his sculptures with extra large hands, and they reminded her of her father’s hands, which were also extra-large. He was a professional hall-of-fame football player.
Elisa saw an image of this painting on my phone, and I mentioned the title was ‘Two Left Hands’. On the spot, she bought it as a gift for her Mom. (Oh, did I mention that her Mom is left handed?)
So many coincidences! Thank you, Elisa, for sharing your totally cool story with us.
Palm Winds (detail)
Oil painting by Holly Van Hart
See full painting here
In “Top Fifty Questions”, I’ll answer the top questions I’m asked as an artist. (These are usually asked at cocktail parties and other fun social events.)
Can I mix styles of art in my home? Yes!
Combining a mix of art styles in your home shows off your unique tastes, life experiences, and creativity. It personalizes your home, makes it even more interesting, and opens up whole new conversations.
That’s my humble opinion 🙂 To look at some ideas from professional interior designers, click here.
Click here to see the rest of the Top 50 Questions
In Reminiscence, I blended two of my favorite subjects – forests and mountain landscapes – onto one large canvas (5 feet across). This is the first painting of this type.
In my travels to over 40 countries, I’ve seen lots of amazing scenery, and this painting was inspired by an amalgamation of vistas observed in these far-off places.
When you look at Reminiscence, do you feel the crisp air? I’d like to invite you to linger and appreciate the beauty of the distant mountains, the ripples on the water, and the light on the trees.
Are you free later today? Want to head off into this vista with me?
For more landscape paintings, click here.
For more forest paintings, click here.
Would you like to see this painting in person? Email me for a studio visit.
To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Free shipping in the continental US.
My work can be seen in ongoing exhibitions at these fine art galleries – The Studio Shop, Mirada Fine Art, and JCO’s Art Haus.
These paintings (and more) can be viewed at the galleries –
Yellow Passage
20″ x 16″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
“Yellow Passage” is meant to convey the majesty and mystery a large mountain range. The size and angular forms of the mountains indicate the majesty, and unusual red and yellow colors add intrigue.
This scene was inspired by my time in the Rocky Mountains a few years ago. I used a photograph as a very loose reference for the shapes of the mountains and the lake, and my imagination for the colors and texture.
This painting is sold and here’s how it looks in its new gorgeous home –
Yellow Passage, Oil painting by Holly Van Hart, installed
Thank you Susan and Steve for placing my artwork in your dining room. I’m honored! Love how you had it framed, and found just the right spot for it.
For more pics of paintings installed in collectors’ homes, click here.
Sometimes we have to make choices in life . . . it’s this OR that. Here OR there. Tomorrow OR next week.
And sometimes we can do both! This AND that. Here AND there. Tomorrow AND next week. That’s called ‘Embracing It All’ –
Embracing It All is currently hanging in my living room. But it could be hanging in yours! Email holly.vanhart@gmail.com for details
My article “Conveying our Deepest Emotions” was just published in Outdoor Painter magazine 
“A great painting conveys an artist’s deepest emotions. When we encounter a masterpiece, it stirs up something primal that causes us to stop, stare, pause, . . . . ” [click for full article]
Holly Van Hart’s award winning nature paintings are now available as high quality prints. You can shop online here for prints on canvas, framed prints, acrylic prints, metal prints, and more.
Scroll below to see the options, or click for a larger view of available prints. Enjoy shopping!
Hi there! Here’s one of my latest forest paintings (and the first one completed in a square format) . . .
Circling of the Seasons
48 x 48″ mixed media painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
For available forest paintings, click here
Want to see how this painting was made? Here are some pics . . .
And, in video . . .
For more info, check these out –
* Try before you buy program
* Come for a studio visit
* Info on purchasing
To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
Want to see more in-progress paintings? Check out these videos http://hollyvanhart.com/youtube-videos
Thanks for being here!
Do you love being in a forest and inhaling deeply? Forest air smells so pure, so fresh and so alive!
This sensory experience is what inspired my new painting ‘Woodscent’ (above). For purchase info, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
Thanks very much for stopping by! If you’d like to see more abstracted forest paintings, click here.
More info here –
Studio visit
Purchase details
Try Before You Buy program
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Top 25 Paintings and favorite inspirational quotes.
Free Instant Download. Enter your email here –
[/vc_column_text][vcex_form_shortcode style=”modern” full_width=”true” width=”300px”][/vcex_form_shortcode][vc_column_text] [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][/vc_row]Have you ever strolled through a forest and felt strong sunlight beaming through the trees? That’s what I was aiming for with this new painting, Washed in Light. It is set in springtime, with lots of bright yellow-green leaves. Come take a walk with me down the winding path!
Here are some in-progress pics for this painting –
Drumroll please. Here’s the finished painting –
And here’s how it would look hanging in a living room –
Washed in Light
Mixed media painting by Holly Van Hart
(Installed)
To purchase, please email holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
Want to be the 1st to see pre-release paintings? Click here to become a VIP member.
Possibilities Abound
30″ x 40″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Grand Prize Award – California Statewide Painting Competition
Originally published in 2013, and just updated with info on upcoming events and prints.
I’m walking on air . . . I was honored to have won Grand Prize at the California Statewide Painting Competition.
The 1st place award was a solo exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art. (To see pics and videos of my solo show, click here.)
In the words of the curators of the Triton Museum of Art . . .
“Holly van Hart warmed the jurors with her painting Possibilities Abound. A nest cradles eggs, rendered with a confident, loose brushstroke that evokes a sense that this could be any nest, anywhere. And as with all great art, the metaphor returns the image to contemplations of us, the viewers. Avian becomes human, the unborn promise becomes our own possibilities, to be nurtured and explored. We are seeing nothing less than the potential of the human spirit, nestled in nature’s bed.”
– Preston Metcalf, Chief Curator
– Ester Fernandez, Curator of Education/Curator
– Stephanie Learmonth, Registrar/Curator
Click here for photos taken at the Triton Museum during the 2013 California Statewide Painting Competition Exhibition.
For upcoming events, click here.
This painting is sold. For prints, click here.
Possibilities on High
24″ x 30″ oil on canvas
Commission a custom nature painting
Yes, that does happen sometimes, unfortunately.
Usually I’m brimming with ideas for paintings, and almost always have a few ideas that are competing for attention on any given day.
But on some days I’m just not feeling it. When that happens, I follow the advice of Chuck Close, an amazing and famous artist, who says “Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. . . . All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself.”
That’s my experience too. Once I pick up a pencil or paintbrush, ideas will often reveal themselves. Then I’m inspired all over again!
Click here to see the rest of the Top 50 Questions
Have a question to add to the top 50? Please send an email to holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
Do you stick to certain daily habits? Would you think that habits help (or hinder) your creativity?
This might surprise you, but many creative people have strong daily habits. And we go to enormous lengths to maintain them.
Habits allow our mental bandwidth to be channeled to create new stuff (art, music, computer programs, legal strategies, etc), rather than being wasted on the mundane (for example, which route should I take to work?).
If this topic fascinates you (as it does me), you might like to check out the highly rated book ‘Daily Rituals: How Artists Work‘ by Mason Currey.
One of the conclusions of ‘Daily Rituals’ is that there is no set of habits that is best for creativity. But when we develop habits that suit our values and lifestyle, we are setting ourselves up for success.
Some of my habits include eating oatmeal for breakfast every day (all 7 days of the week, all 52 weeks of the year, with very rare exceptions), and heading to my studio to start painting as soon as my sons leave for school.
One of my habits is eating a bowl of oatmeal every morning.
The extras vary (strawberries, nuts, cinnamon, coffee, hot chili pepper, . . . ) but the Quaker Oats stay the same.
I have some other daily habits (bad ones) that I’m trying to kick and that do not contribute to my creativity – like eating far too much chocolate. But that’s a subject for another time.
What daily habits do you find most helpful?
At cocktail parties and other fun social events, people often ask me questions about life as an artist. They are answered in my ‘Top 50 Questions’ list. This blog post is the latest addition to my Top 50. To see the other questions & answers, click here.
