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.
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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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.
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.
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
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
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.
February 1, 2020 –
Today I was just awarded a prestigious art achievement award from the National Association of Pen Women. Feeling so very honored!!
At the Celebrity Luncheon for the National League of American Pen Women, about to receive the arts achievement award. (Thanks to Patricia Dennis for the photo.)
Living a life of abundance means so many different things. For me, part of the satisfaction of an abundant life includes sharing with others.
I love it when friends, artists, gallery owners, curators and others share their secrets with me. Even after all these years here on earth, I have plenty to learn about life, love, art & everything!
And I’m happy to divulge my secrets in return. (I’m pretty much an open book, so there really aren’t many secrets. But I’m not a chatty person so you might have to ask me to draw them out.)
‘Divulging the Secrets’ is a celebration of sharing!
This painting is sold, but you can see available forest, flower, and landscape paintings here. (Also, you can check out the try-before-you-buy program, and purchase info.)
To see more flower paintings and read more about their inspirations, click here.
Serenity
20 x 20″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart (sold)
Buy a print
View video of this painting being created
Every painting tells a story. When we look at a painting, we absorb and interpret the story in our own unique way.
My abstract nature paintings are about the beauty and peace of nature.
This painting, ‘Serenity’, shows 3 robin’s eggs, resting serenely in their nest. The strong reds in the nest, branches, leaves, and buds represent the fullness of life outside the nest. The lives of the 3 siblings in this nest are full of possibilities. When the eggs hatch into birds, they will experience all that life has to offer outside the nest.
That’s my story for ‘Serenity’. What’s yours? (Email me at holly.vanhart@gmail.com)
To see a video of this painting being created, click here.
For more “What inspired this painting” articles, click here.
Originally published in 2013, and just updated
‘Soft Start’ was inspired by the nests of a bird called a swallow. Swallows live on all the earth’s continents except Antarctica. They use the feathers of other birds to line their nests and keep their eggs toasty warm.
Eggs that are incubated in such a cozy nest are surely full of possibilities, but with a softer start than most.
btw, Soft Start was featured in my solo exhibition at the Triton Museum of Art. Would you like to know more about the show? You’re invited to read my interview in the Huffington Post, or to view the pics and videos and catalog from the Triton museum exhibition (and get a free download of Triton museum catalog).
“Van Hart’s paintings . . . present their enigmatic subjects with both beauty and conviction, memorably.” – DeWitt Cheng, Art writer for Art Ltd, Artillery, ARTnews, and Visual Art Source
Landscapes are a subject I come back to again and again. Even in the midst of working on a series of forest or flower paintings, sometimes I feel compelled to paint an abstract landscape using oil paints.
With ‘Grazing the Light’, I was aiming to capture the feeling of an overcast day, but with some sunlight breaking through. Across the expanse of water, we can see mountains near and far. But what is that splash of yellow/orange? Is it man-made or natural? It is meant to add mystery to the painting.
It’s hard to see in this digital image, but etched into the foreground of this painting (bottom left) is part of a poem by Walt Whitman, “Every hour is an unspeakably perfect miracle”.
If you’d like to see a higher resolution image, please lmk.
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?
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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!
This painting is sold, but you can view available paintings here.
My paintings are inspired by life’s limitless possibilities. In Boundless Promise, you’re invited to take a walk down this path with me. Here, we will soak up all the opportunities around us. They are everywhere!
This painting is sold, but you can check out available paintings here. To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com
Want to see how Boundless Promise was made? Check out these pics and video –
A new forest. My idea for this one is a gorgeous spring day. The type of day that puts you in an instant good mood!
My paintings usually show abundance, in this case lots of trees and (soon) lots of leaves.
It’s a way to remind myself (and hopefully all viewers) that life is abundant and full of possibilities!
This bright green instantly brings me to a spring day. Does it do that for you?
Close up view. You can see how roughly it is painted at this stage.
Have you ever noticed how much yellow there is in springtime greenery? Trying to get that gorgeous yellow-green in these leaves.
Adding darker leaves, and adding shadows to the tree trunks
Finished! Boundless Promise, 36 x 48 inch mixed media painting by HVH.
Purchase info is here. To purchase, email holly.vanhart@gmail.com
For more paintings and inspirations, please check out my new book, Nature’s Inspirations. Click here for Download here (free!).
Sky Song is my latest abstract landscape painting. It’s full of heavily textured oil paints, which have a gorgeous sheen.
The distant mountains are gray and pink and purple and blue, and have an air of mystery.
The sky is alive with light. It’s singing a song. Can you hear it?
Here’s a flyover of ‘Sky Song’, so you can see the buttery texture of the oil paint –
To purchase, please email holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Purchase details
If you live in Silicon Valley, delivery and installation are free. If you don’t, shipping is free!
Would you like to see this painting in person?
Fail fast, fail often, fail forward . . . you may have heard these terms before. They mean that you have to fail many times before you succeed.
I prefer the more descriptive, happier-sounding ‘failing toward success’. If you’ve ever had the experience of painting (or any challenging creative endeavor), you’ll know that not every attempt yields success.
Even the most experienced artists create paintings that fail. Lots of them. That’s one way we learn, and it’s a natural part of the artistic process.
Recently I invested in a new digital system that will help me ‘fail toward success’ more quickly, and to create my very best work. Here it is . . .
New computer, monitor, painting tablet, and painting software – this set-up will help me ‘fail toward success’ more quickly
For now, I use this digital set-up to design paintings, and then use traditional canvas and oil paints to create the paintings. After 3 long months of slogging through user manuals and YouTube tutorials, I’m finally at a place where I can use digital tools to focus on creative design (vs fumbling around with the technology).
‘Your Highest Potential’ (above) is one of my paintings created with this new process. The name is a story in itself that I’ll share with you sometime.
In the future, using these new digital tools may morph me into a ‘mixed media’ artist. But for now I’m still in love with the beautiful, textured, buttery sheen of oil paints and don’t plan to give them up any time soon.
Bet you have have lots of experiences with ‘failing toward success’. What are your most memorable ones? Please email me at holly.vanhart@gmail.com. I’d love to hear about them.
On a different note . . . are you moving into a new home, remodeling, or just freshening up a room? Are you wondering how to jazz things up with splashes of color (artfully)? If so, you can get a Free Color Guide by clicking here – ‘The Top 7 Designer Secrets for Adding Color to Your Space‘.
Do you like to dream big?
I do! As a die-hard optimist, my art (and life) are inspired by the idea of limitless possibilities.
In ‘How Dreams Are Made’, the flowers represent the colorful opportunities in our lives . . . exciting and bountiful opportunities swirling all around us.
The visual inspiration came during a walk in Saratoga on a windy day. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught some gorgeous yellow flowers getting tossed around by the wind. A quick snap of the camera gave me a photo reference to work with.
Back in the studio, I quickly got to work. I wanted the painting to have a breezy look and lots of movement, like Field of Dreams.
This painting was fun, but it did not come easy! There were many points when I wondered whether it would succeed.
For some strange reason, a lot of my best work comes after those sinking moments of doubt. I think the uncertainty frees me up to make bold decisions.
Speaking of which . . . bold decisions are exactly what we need to chase big dreams. Let’s go for it!!
btw, you might also be interested in this article How do you know when a painting is done? One of the hardest decisions in making a painting is knowing when to stop!
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.)
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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’
This painting is sold. To see all available paintings, click here.
A playful and celebratory painting . . . aspens draped with dreamy turquoise and yellow gold ribbons.
Don’t be shy. Email me with questions or for purchase info, holly.vanhart@gmail.com. Shipping is free for VIP members.
If you’d like to see more abstracted forest paintings, click here.
Related info –
Available paintings
Commissions
Studio visit
Purchase details
Try Before You Buy program
Walk on the Wild Side
30 x 40″ oil painting by Holly Van Hart
$3800
Interested? Please email holly.vanhart@gmail.com, or call 650 646 5590.
Thanks for being here 🙂
