Autumn Gold
24 x 18 oil painting by Holly Van Hart
In the heat of the summer, I was dreaming about the crisp fall days of my favorite season. So here’s ‘Autumn Gold’.
Who doesn’t love the colors of fall leaves? The variety and brilliance are an artist’s dream!
To see more abstract forest paintings, click here.
Let’s stay in touch! Learn more
Come take a tour through my solo exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art! Learn the stories behind a few key paintings, and see the exhibition installed in the Triton’s Rotunda Gallery.
“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
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I was awarded an artist fellowship by The Clark Hulings Fund for Visual Artists for 2017, and again in 2018, and am feeling very honored.
The Clark Hulings Fund for Visual Artists is an acclaimed national nonprofit organization. It has chosen twenty artist fellows for its Business Accelerator Program, including me 🙂
The selected artists will participate in CHF’s innovative and comprehensive initiative, which seeks to transform the art industry by helping artists better manage their businesses.
New! Arts Recognition Award from the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution in the Los Altos Town Crier.
“The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution recently gave Holly Van Hart the Women in the Arts Recognition Award.” Read full article here.
Feeling so honored!!
Holly Van Hart (left) being interviewed by Heather Durham (right) for her Silicon Valley TV show, SVTAGS
I was honored to be interviewed by Heather Durham on her Silicon Valley TV show.
“On this show, Holly talks about her art, career change, and some amazing honors she has received since she has started this new career. We also get a peak at some of her work.” – Heather Durham, Executive Producer, SVTAGS (http://www.svtags.org/)
Watch the first 10 minutes of the 30 minute show here –
Let’s stay in touch! (And get some free goodies.) Click here to learn more
When you see the color blue, what do you think of?
In the art world, the color blue represents trust, loyalty, strength, and leadership.
Truth is, when painting How Dreams are Made (above), none of that was top of mind. ‘Dreaming big’ was in my thoughts. Read/see more here.
For me, the answer is both yes and no. With a glass of wine or two, my mind sometimes opens up to new ideas.
But if I have a drink and then try to apply paint to canvas, mostly I make a big mess.
So, the trick is to harness the ideas without messing up any in-progress paintings!
Click here to see the rest of the Top 50 Questions
Have a question to add to the top 50? Email me at holly.vanhart@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.
What do school soccer and ‘Threshold of Miracles’ have in common?
Inspiration is everywhere!
The inspiration for this painting was a big bush of white roses planted at a local high school. The roses were brilliantly lit in the afternoon sun. I noticed them during the half-time break from my son’s soccer game, and couldn’t resist snapping a bunch of photos.
Using my computer, I tried a few combinations of photos until one stood out as the best design. Then I set to work in my studio with paints and brushes and lots of excitement!
This painting is called ‘Threshold of Miracles’. It symbolizes all the amazing things we can do with our lives (and the miracles we can create) when we keep our eyes open.
Wishing you lots of sunshine and miracles in your life!
Autumn Reds
30 x 24″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Buy a print
Commission a forest painting
The other day, a friend asked why I had started painting birch trees. One reason is that they are so darn gorgeous!! (I get reminded of this just about every day, because we have a lot of birch trees here in Saratoga.)
Birch tree trunks are highly textured and have a wide range of values, from white to very very dark in the shadows. And the leaves, in an autumn setting, offer a huge range of warm colors to work with – reds, oranges, yellows, golds. An artist’s dream!
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(One email every 2-3 weeks.)
To see past events, please check out Holly Van Hart’s resume/CV (includes the most important career highlights such as solo shows, museum shows, awards, fellowships, and press, podcasts, and TV interviews.
Here’s an interesting question for you . . . ‘What advice would you give to your younger self?’
If you feel like sharing your answer, please drop me a note at holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
After giving lots of thought to this question, and tossing aside a few false starts, I found my answer . . . ‘To be successful in your career, you need to work smart, work hard, and add a healthy dose of self promotion.’ In the past I was pretty good at the 1st two (working hard and smart), and totally oblivious to the self-promotion part.
I’m starting to get better at it now (if I didn’t, no one would know my art existed!), but still have plenty to learn.
Do you have any tips? I’m all ears!
Holly
P.S. Speaking about self-promotion, the painting shown above is named ‘Every Restless Night’. It is sold, but available paintings can be seen online here. Free delivery for VIP members. Free local installation and hanging in the Silicon Valley area. If you’re interested, please email me at holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
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
Unlimited Possibilities
Oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Buy a print
“Unlimited Possibilities” is all about the unlimited possibilities of the baby birds, not yet hatched, with their whole lives still ahead of them.
Parallels can be easily be made with our own lives and our children’s lives. No matter what age we might be now, the possibilities ahead really are unlimited. How exciting!
If you look closely, you can see underlying texture on this painting is oval shaped; this is meant harmonize with the shape of the eggs themselves.
The texture adds complexity to the painting, and symbolizes the complexity of nature and our lives. We may have unlimited possibilities in our lives, but it’s not always easy to take advantage of them.
Unlimited Possibilities
Side view
20″ x 20″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart
Unlimited Possibilities was one of 18 paintings in my solo exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art. For videos, pics, and a Triton Museum catalog (free), click here.
Video #2 . . . watch this video to hear my take on how an artist comes up with an idea for a series of artwork. Enjoy!
Video #1 – How a painting is created
Video #2 – An idea for a series
Other videos coming soon –
Ideas for works within a series
Painting demo
What is the viewer’s response?
Yes! I do custom paintings.
In fact, I just delivered a custom painting to a new collector, and this is what she had to say –
“You perfectly transformed my dream into a stunningly beautiful painting. I am deeply grateful.”
Wow, I feel so honored. That made my day (my week!). Thank you Sue!!!
I love creating custom paintings. Good thing, because I’m currently working on 6 of them, ranging in size from 16 inches wide up to 80″ wide. That’s wider than you are tall!
If you’d like to learn more about custom paintings, click here (http://hollyvanhart.com/commission-painting/) . (They make great gifts, and come with a 100% money back guarantee.) Or email me at holly.vanhart@gmail.com.
Whether you’re interested in commissioned paintings or not, thank you for your interest in my work.
— Holly
P.S. If you want more info, check out more testimonials and pics of paintings installed in collectors homes.
P.P.S. My custom paintings were awarded Best of Houzz. Check out the details here.
Summer Sparkle
48 x 36″ oil and acrylic painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Buy a print
A couple of years ago, I set about creating a brand new art website (the site you’re on right now). I learned lots, had fun, and am happy with the result. But it took waaaaaaaaay longer than expected.
So that others could learn from my experience, I wrote an article about lessons learned called “Build Your Own Website in 10 Minutes (Not)“. The article is posted on Alyson Stanfield’s art marketing blog, artbizcoach.com blog. Read the article here.
btw, if you’re an artist, I’d highly recommend subscribing to the artbizcoach.com blog.
Do you have any experience with building your own website? If so, we’d love to hear from you – holly.vanhart@gmail.com
In “Top Fifty Questions”, I’ll answer the top things I’m asked as an artist. (These questions usually come up at cocktail parties and other fun social events.)
Sure!
I definitely miss seeing my work-friends and colleagues more regularly. They were/are an amazingly talented and multi-faceted group of people. Good thing Facebook and LinkedIn give us an easy way to keep in touch!
What I also loved about high tech was the opportunity to constantly stretch myself and learn new things. Luckily I have that in abundance as an artist too.
One thing’s for sure . . . Being a full-time artist feels like what I was meant to do.
To read more about my career move to professional artist, click here.
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
The holidays are almost here. Need a special gift for your special someone?
New! Petite Treasures are gift-sized original paintings by yours truly. They are created with the same great care used with my large-scale paintings, and with the highest quality archival materials. Each painting is museum-quality and ready to hang in the finest of homes and work spaces.
Click to see all available Petite Treasures
Treat yourself or a loved one! Click to see all available Petite Treasures.
Additional info here – Purchase / Guarantee / Gift Certificates, Petite Treasures, Try Before You Buy, Studio Visit
Funny thing happened the other night. A friend came to dinner and it was the height of the gladiolus season. He looked at my husband’s garden –
and then at this painting hanging on our living room wall –
He pointed to one, and then the other, and asked the question . . . which came first, the flowers or the painting?
Oddly enough, the flowers came from my imagination about 6 months before my husband grew his first gladiolus flowers. But his garden is spectacular and will inspire many more paintings to come!
‘Beckoning’ is currently hanging in our home. If you’d like to hang it in yours, please email me at holly.vanhart@gmail.com or call 650 646 5590.
To see all available paintings, click here.
High quality prints are available here (on canvas, paper, metal, framed, unframed, and so much more).
Treat yourself! 🙂
This painting is sold, but you can see the latest available paintings here.
To see more pics and articles on ‘What Inspired This Painting?’, click here.
Embracing the Light
48 x 60″ mixed media painting on canvas by Holly Van Hart
Sold
For a holiday party, I paired paintings with custom cocktails. ‘Embracing the Light’ (above) was paired with a cocktail I named ‘Red Smash’.
Here’s the recipe –
2 ounces London dry gin
1 ounce cranberry juice
1 ounce Rose’s lime juice
Whole fresh cranberries, for garnish
It was a big hit!!
Why Red Smash is paired with Embracing the Light
In keeping with the Dutch theme for our party . . . gin was first made in Holland and is known as ‘Dutch courage’.
The gin in this drink uses juniper berries as its primary ingredient. ‘Embracing the Light’ is primarily dark green, like juniper.
Gin uses ‘botanicals’ to give it its complex flavor. In addition to juniper, Boodles British Gin includes hints of coriander seed, angelica root, angelica seed, cassia bark, nutmeg, rosemary and sage. The painting ‘Embracing the Light’ uses an equally wide range of colors to give it its complexity; in fact it uses all the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) and many variations.
Enjoy! (The cocktail and the painting!)
The abstract nature paintings you see on this website are inspired by life’s limitless possibilities!
Each painting is meant to convey a sense of plenty, fullness, color, prosperity, and opportunity. Sometimes we have all of these things in our lives. Sometimes we’re only wishing for them.
But it’s always nice to think and dream about them!
‘A Full Life’ is available for purchase (30 x 40″ original oil painting on canvas, painted on the edges, wired on the back, ready to hang, $3800 + tax). For a limited time, shipping is free for VIP members. Contact holly.vanhart@gmail.com for details.
“If not me, who? If not now, when?” These are the words that Dr. Leslie Field asked herself about tackling the huge problem of global warming.
Dr. Field is a prolific inventor, the Founder of SmallTech Consulting, a Consulting Prof at Stanford University, a mom of two, an art-lover, and the founder of Ice911.
Ice911 is a boots on the ground solution to reduce global warming.
In this Facebook Live interview with Dr. Field, we learn more about what inspired her to start Ice911, and the steps she is taking now to slow down global warming.
Click below to listen and to get inspired!
Feeling honored to be interviewed by San Jose Creatives.
Huge thanks to Shannon Amidon (for the interview) and Daniel Garcia of Content Magazine (for the pics, below). Read/see more 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.
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, and no, mostly no.
Every time I set out to make a painting, I’m excited about the potential of it. If (after a few months of work) I complete it and am equally or more excited, than I know it’s done. I photograph the painting, post it to my website and blog, and start exhibiting it. When it sells, I feel a great sense of satisfaction and love the connection it establishes (or strengthens) with the collector.
I’ll make this analogy . . .
* Starting a painting is like having a newborn baby – exciting and exhausting.
* Making a painting is like raising a child – tons of work, challenging and fun.
* Selling a painting is like having your child graduate university and land an excellent job – you’re elated that he/she has successfully ‘launched’ and sad that you’ll see less of him/her. But mostly elated.
That’s my experience. Do you have a similar experience to share?
Click here to see the rest of the Top 50 Questions
Get the latest paintings and exhibition info delivered to your inbox! Learn more here.
‘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.
Building the Future
24″ x 18″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart
Purchase Info
Yes! Oil paintings are very easy to care for. Here are my top tips for painting care . . .
– Hang your new painting on your wall as soon as you can (to get it out of harm’s way).
– Hang your painting out of direct sunlight.
– Dust it every once in a while.
– Enjoy!
Oil paintings are very durable too. They can last hundreds of years, maybe longer. This means they can be enjoyed for your lifetime, and then passed on and treasured for many generations to come.
For details on oil painting care from a preservation professional, click here.
‘Possibilities in Full Bloom’ is meant to convey the idea that life is chock full with possibilities. The eggs in the nest are radiating warmth, and the magnolia tree is loaded with lush flowers. Life abounds!
This painting was fun to create for many reasons. One of my favorite parts was leaving the underlying red color and texture showing through in many places. (Can you see this? Click on the image to see a larger version.) To me, this gives the work a fresh feel.
In case you’re wondering . . . click here to read “What’s up with all the nests?”