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]
Trees can have a commanding presence, especially when they are tall. Do you love being surrounded by towering forest? I do!
I aimed to capture that feeling here with my new tree painting, Standing Tall –
Here are some in-progress pics for this painting –
Here’s the finished painting –
Want to be the 1st to see pre-release paintings? Click here to become a VIP member.
How did I make this painting? Watch a video here –
This painting is sold.
To see available flower paintings, click here hollyvanhart.com/available-originals
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.)
Yes! Thanks for asking 🙂
My paintings are in a bunch of galleries, listed here.
You can also see my work at my Open Studio and other upcoming events; click here for details.
Here’s the story of the inspiration and making of a new tree painting named Summer Sparkle –
Erik (our younger son) gave me a tour of the lush New York forest. He drove my Dad’s ATV. I sat behind him and snapped photos.
One of the 100+ photos I took while on the ATV that afternoon.
In keeping with my theme of limitless possibilities, I’m inspired by subjects that reveal life and growth and abundance. In this case, lush green trees were everywhere. I also like the sense of motion in this pic.
Back in the studio . . . the start of a new forest painting, ‘Summer Sparkle’
In progress pic of ‘Summer Sparkle’ (detail)
Completed painting – Summer Sparkle
48 x 36″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart
‘Autumn Dance‘ ‘Summer Sparkle’ and ‘Amid the Scent of Roses‘
They are hanging in my living room, but they could be in yours :-).
This story was first published for my VIP subscribers. If you would like to be first to see new paintings, please become a VIP.
To see all tree and forest paintings, click here.
‘Opportunity’ is the latest member of the Possibilities series. When you look at this nest and eggs, can you see the limitless potential of the human spirit? I hope so. (Read more here, “What’s up with all the nests?“)
The colors of this painting are American colors and, to many of us, America (the US) is the land of opportunity. Personally I believe America is an amazing place where, with lots of passion and hard work, one’s possibilities are virtually unlimited.
‘Opportunity’ represents the sense of wonder, potential, and pride many of us feel for our country. Nothing is ever perfect, however; the underlying textures in this painting are meant to remind us of things unseen. We might live in the US and have many of its advantages, but success is not assured.
‘Opportunity’ was created in phases over many months. I started with a black and white reference photo of a real bird’s nest, and from there let my imagination and paintbrush wander (and wander and wander). Success was not assured.
Some paintings converge quickly and others take more time and iterations. The more a painting deviates from the reference photos, the longer it takes me to complete it. Imagination takes time, especially if the end result is supposed to look like something real but not really.
Opportunity was one of the 18 paintings in my solo show at the Triton Museum of Art. For a walking tour video & pics of the exhibition, click here.
Can’t wait to get to work!
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.
So excited to open a special envelope . . . it contains my forest painting on the cover of Denver Life Magazine. (As well as a 2-page spread inside the magazine.) Join me! Click on video to view.
Every Restless Night, 48×48″ painting by Holly Van Hart
Featured on the cover of Denver Life Magazine
So honored to have this painting featured in the 2019 Designer Showhouse in Denver, Colorado, and on the cover of Denver Life Magazine.
Huge thanks to Steve Sonnen of Mirada Fine Art Gallery for this opportunity 🙂
On related note, congratulations to Mirada Fine Art for being selected for these prestigious awards –
‘Top 25 Galleries in the U.S.A.’
-American Art Awards, 2019
‘Denver’s Best Art Gallery’
-Denver A-List, 2016, 2017 & 2018
Here are two images of the painting in the magazine –
Questions? Interested? Please contact Steve Sonnen of Mirada Fine Art, (303) 697-9006, info@miradafineart.com or holly.vanhart@gmail.com
You know that sense of grandeur we get when surrounded by a beautiful forest? That’s what I was aiming to capture with this painting, Woodland Symphony.
When giving this painting its name, the word ‘symphony’ came to mind. In a great symphony, all the musical notes work together in intriguingly complex and beautiful ways. In a painting, the color notes have to work together in similarly intriguing ways.
btw, if you’re curious, here are some in-progress pics of Woodland Symphony –
The beginnings of Woodland Symphony
Working on Woodland Symphony (almost as tall as I am)
Sometimes it’s better to work on a painting sideways
Woodland Symphony (left), Wandering in Wonder (center) and The Grand Escape (right), mixed media paintings by HVH. These paintings are currently hanging in my living room, but they could be hanging in yours 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. If you’d like to see more abstracted forest paintings, click here.
For purchase info, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
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
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.
‘Holly Van Hart: Possibilities Abound’ book for Solo Exhibition at Triton Museum of Art
Free Instant Download
No sign-up required
This 28-page full color book accompanies Holly Van Hart’s Possibilities Abound solo exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art.
Van Hart’s oil paintings feature larger-than-life birds’ eggs and nests to symbolize the promise of our own capabilities, to be nurtured and explored and stretched to their fullest potential.
This book features beautiful color plates of Van Hart’s richly colored paintings.
It includes essays by DeWitt Cheng, art writer for Art Ltd, Artillery, ARTnews and Visual Art Source, and Preston Metcalf, Chief Curator at the Triton Museum of Art. Van Hart has been featured in the Huffington Post, The San Jose Mercury News, and on Silicon Valley Talk Art Cable TV.
Free! eBook of Holly Van Hart’s Solo Exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art (Instant Download, no sign-up required)
Click here to buy the paperback version on Amazon
“It is work that is powerful in its simplicity and message of human connectivity.” – Preston Metcalf, Chief Curator of the Triton Museum of Art.
“Van Hart’s hard-won painterly skills are undeniable and compelling. Her naturalistic yet symbolic paintings . . . present their enigmatic subjects with both beauty and conviction, memorably. – DeWitt Cheng, Art writer for Art Ltd, Artillery, ARTnews, and Visual Art Source.
Palm Winds
30″ x 40″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Welcome to the tropics!
As you view “Palm Winds”, can you feel the warm wind on your skin? This painting is meant to instill a feeling of peacefulness from the beauty of the trees, sea, and sky. The empty picnic tables are inviting you to sit down and have a meal. It is a hot day, and the wind is offsetting the tropical heat.
The inspiration for this painting draws on my travels to Tahiti, Thailand, Costa Rica and other places of tropical awesomeness. In addition, it was inspired by an amazing photo taken by my friend Veronique Gillard. (Thank you Veronique!)
Palm Winds
Side view
30″ x 40″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart
This painting is sold. For available paintings, click here.
Originally published in 2013, and just updated
Dreaming in Full Color
Oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Buy a print
When we’re young, most of us have big dreams for our lives. Have your dreams changed over time? Do you find that some doors have closed, but other (perhaps better) doors have opened?
Do you dream in full color?
My long-term dream of being a professional artist has come true, and my sons are turning into fine young men, but many of my other dreams have slipped away. Or maybe they just haven’t happened yet (like my dream of exercising consistently).
At the age of 15, my older son Skyler dreams of being a pediatrician, a software developer, or an ‘IT guy’. Erik, age 13, wants to be an architect or engineer or inventor like his Dad. At this age, all doors are open. Anything is possible! They are, as they should be, dreaming in full color. Isn’t that grand?
In this painting, ‘Dreaming in Full Color’, the flowers represent our dreams, shown in their full glory. The flowers are dancing around through the turbulence and beauty that we call life. Some dreams won’t survive this turbulence, but others will become bigger and stronger.
When it comes to your dreams, here’s wishing that your most color-full ones come true!
Your friend,
Holly
P.S. This post is based on one of the Top 50 Questions I’m asked as an artist (usually at cocktail parties and other fun events). To see the Top 50, click here.
Originally posted in 2013 and just reposted with updated links to pics and videos of the show
My solo exhibit at the Triton Museum of Art will run from late November 2014 – mid February 2015. If you haven’t been there before, the Triton is a beautiful contemporary art museum in Santa Clara, CA.
This exhibit opportunity came about because my painting ‘Possibilities Abound’ was awarded first place in the Statewide Painting Competition hosted by the Triton. The prize was a solo exhibit.
The title of the solo exhibit will be ‘Possibilities’, and the theme is the virtually limitless possibilities that are available to us in life. In the Possibilities series, eggs are used to represent the unborn promise in our lives, and the nests represent the wonderful variety of homes we build for ourselves.
I’ll need about 15-20 paintings for the exhibit. About 1/2 are done. Some of the paintings are sold but (luckily!) the owners have offered to loan them back.
Preston Metcalf, Chief Curator of the Triton Museum, will decide how the paintings will be hung in the Rotunda gallery. He asked that I be there to give input, and I’m very much looking forward to the day we work together to hang the show.
The reception is December 12, 2014, 6-8pm. This will be the biggest art event so far in my career.
For photos and videos of my solo show and reception at the Triton Museum of Art, click here. (You can also download the catalog from the show . . . free!)
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?
Have you ever tried meditation?
I’ve tried it multiple times, including a 2-day class in Indonesia, but failed miserably each time. I can’t calm my mind in that way.
On the other hand, the act of painting has a meditative quality to it that I love.
Painting can completely absorb me and transport me to a different place.
My paintings often go through a bunch of twists and turns before they are done. Sometimes, by the end of all that, I don’t quite remember how things progressed along the way.
‘Alternate Reality’ (shown above) was a painting that was totally absorbed me like that.
It felt so refreshing. Lucky me.
Do you have a meditation practice, activity, hobby or job like that? If so, lucky you!
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
Do you love birch and aspen trees as much as I do? These days, I’m happily immersed in autumnal birch tree forests.
Here are some details from my in-progress painting, Autumn Dance (48 x 36″) –
There’s something about them that seems to be universally appealing. For one thing, they are so gorgeous.
Birch and aspens look very similar to each other, so I had to look up what the differences are. If you’re curious, here are the highlights –
btw, here’s the completed painting –
And here’s the completed painting hanging on my living room wall (left) –
‘Autumn Dance’ ‘Summer Sparkle’ and ‘Amid the Scent of Roses’
These paintings are hanging in my living room, but they could be in yours 🙂
Would you like to see this painting in person?
To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Free shipping in the US.
Celebration/Larger Than Life
54 x 72″ Oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Buy a print
The larger-than-life sized nest and eggs in ‘Celebration’ are meant to represent the potential of the human spirit, nestled in nature’s bed. Read more here, “What’s up with all the nests?”
There’s also a personal story behind ‘Celebration’ . . .
Birds will build their nests with whatever materials are available to them. One spring when I was a girl, my mother sprinkled snippets of red yarn in the yard near our summer home. She then encouraged us to see what happened next. Sure enough, a bird built a nest using the beautiful red yarn. (Sure wish I had a photo of that now!)
In ‘Celebration’ the birds have built their nest with twigs and ribbons. To me, ribbons have a celebratory feel, hence the title of the painting.
This painting was created in phases over many months. It leverages what I learned about painting nests and eggs from the other Possibilities paintings, as well as reference photos for the ribbons.
Are you in the mood to celebrate?
Follow Holly’s latest art news, exhibits, and special offers (and get a free eBook)
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 –
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
With this new tree painting Slipping Between the Notes, the “notes” are the leaves on the trees. My intention was to paint a sunny, happy forest that tempted you to come in and play.
Will you please join me here, running around and slipping between the notes?
Here are some in-progress pics for this painting –
Here’s the finished painting –
And here’s how it would look against a blue wall –
Want to see all available paintings? Click here to request a digital catalog.
Click for more videos – hollyvanhart.com/YouTube-Videos
Possibilities in Full Color
24″ x 30″ oil painting on canvas by Holly Van Hart
Purchase Info
Possibilities in Full Color is about the lives within these 3 eggs, still to be lived. They are meant to be ‘full color’ lives, filled with joy and delight and exciting challenges.
This painting is also about the homes (nests) of the baby birds and their parents. Do you see the reds, oranges, greens, blues, and yellows? This ‘full color’ nest represents the unique and wonderful personalities of all the individuals that live within it, as well as the wonderful variety of homes that birds build for themselves.
What do you see in “Possibilities in Full Color”? It’s always fascinating to learn how paintings are interpreted. I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments (holly.vanhart@gmail.com).
This painting is available from Bluestone Fine Art Gallery; click for details.
Hi there. Hope you’re well!
We’re experiencing hot summer weather this week, but it feels like Christmas!
Two new 8″ brushes just came in the mail. (Guess I’m easy to please.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click here to see my television debut – an interview, painting demo, and discussion of my solo exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art. What do you think (really)?
Originally published in 2014, and published again just for fun 🙂
For more videos of painting demos and artist talks, click here.
New!
Join me on a boat ride over a vast sea. We’ll be following our fascinations. We’re not sure where they may lead us, or how long we’ll be gone.
Sometimes the ocean will be smooth, and other times we’ll hit many waves. But it will always be worth the journey!
Here are some detail pics of ‘Following Your Fascinations’ –
If you’re browsing this website, you’ll see the ocean appear in many of my paintings. I absolutely love the water and the shoreline! I grew up in New York city, and lived in California for most of my adult life, so I’ve never been far from the coast. Lucky me!
Would you like to see this painting in person?
To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Free shipping in the US.
In “Top Fifty Questions”, I answer the questions I’m most frequently asked as an artist (usually asked at parties and other fun events). For the answers, click on the links. Enjoy!
