Creativity....

I found this quote inspiring today...


I think it does take a lot of courage to create art and put it out into the world....


You can read more about this french artist, Henri Matisse here.

remembering all of them...

There's nothing to really say except... thank you. 


Freedom is not free.


sorry, could not find image source.

Agnes Obel ~ Danish Singer/Songwriter

I fell down a rabbit hole while browsing the internet {...you know how that happens} and I came across this lovely Danish Singer/Songwriter, Agnes Obel. I am in love with this song Riverside! I kept playing it on YouTube... I think I need to buy it here!

Here are some more photos of her. And her website is... here.

Don't you just love the picture with the owl!

I wish they had worked it into the album cover...

All is well. Everything is going to be OK.

All is well. 
Everything is going to be OK.

Does this phrase give you a peaceful feeling? It does me...


This my Crazy Zen Cat painting that I did a little while ago. Recently, I felt the need to add some copy to it that illustrates and matches the "zen" feeling of how he looks. This was painted in a square format so I had to clone in and create a lot more image on the bottom for it to work in this vertical size. 


I have also been formatting some on my prints to smaller 8 x 10" sizes for my Valerie Hart Studio shop.


You can buy a print of this new 8 x 10" size in my Etsy shop here!

I also wanted to offer a print in this new 8 x 10" size without the copy on it as well. Some people really like sentiments and words on art and some people like their art plain.


Getting is new plain 8 x 10" print into my shop soon!


I also like to show in my Esty store a mocked up sample image of how the print would looked framed. I think that this really helps people visualize the art. I put this Zen Cat print into a standard black frame format.

The Butterfly Queen...

I started this painting awhile ago but then got a little stuck... Does that happen to you with your art? I start things and then I need to step away for awhile. I knew what I wanted the wings to look like, but wasn't sure how to create them. And I wanted the colors to be darker, richer looking with a woodsy feeling. 


So this is how she ended up and I really love her! I had come across this lovely butterfly quote by (unknown) and thought that it was a perfect match to the painting, so I named her The Butterfly Queen... 


Happy Spring... butterflies seem to be everywhere all of a sudden.

Maurice Sendak

I heard the news last night that children's book illustrator Maurice Sendak had passed away. I have been following his work for years. He colored outside the lines and changed children's book illustration forever...


Here are a couple of really funny videos of him with Steven Colbert.

"Inside all of us is a 'Wild Thing'. 

And Max, the king of wild things, 

was lonely and wanted to be where 

someone loved him best of all."

Love and light to you Maurice.

We had some much needed rain here in the northeast and all of a sudden things are blooming! Yay, i love Spring so much.

Image - Pinterest

Meow, Meow... Black Cat painting

8" x 8"   |   acrylic on canvas

Here is another new whimsical cat painting! I'm obviously still on the cat theme and really loving this direction. As I mention previously, I find painting the AECO size is just too small for me, but this 8 x 8 size is working out well. And I like how the abstract backgrounds are coming out. I've also done some mixed media backgrounds that I am working on as well. Feels like it may be something more than a cat, but who knows...

This whimsical original cat painting is titled...  "Meow, Meow...". I love the purple and black combo with the touch of pink. I love pink so much! As you can probably tell from my Valentine cat painting. I am feeling the need to paint larger though and I am trying to get something done for St Patrick's Day too! Oh geez, only so many hours in the day...  And, OMG... Spring in less than two weeks!  Yay!

Print of this painting is for sale in my Etsy store. Thanks so much for looking!

Beware of Artists...

Isn't this so funny! I came across this recently and had a little insight as to why there may have been such a stigma against people supporting me as an artist when I was younger. So very interesting.


This was an actual poster from the mid-50’s issued by Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Red Scare and anti communist witch hunt in Washington. All artists were suspect...

Ginny Williams ~ Life Coach!

My friend and { Life Coach } Ginny Williams, recently launched her own website and blog!  Yay Ginny and congratulations! I am such a HUGH FAN of life coaching. I think it's such a wonderful profession that supports so many artists, designers, writers, new entrepreneurs, etc., etc.! 


It's a process that will help you to achieve whatever goals you want to work on in your personal, business, work, or family life. Unlike therapy or counseling, coaching focuses more on where you are right now in your life. No, going back to rehash childhood stuff. It's not that certain issues don't come up that you may have to confront, like fears, or limiting beliefs. But the process is solution and action driven. All focused on YOU and how to move you forward with whatever you have set out to achieve.


I've worked with Ginny a couple of times over the past five years and I made amazing strides both personally and professionally. She is such a delight to work with! Kind, patient, professional, supportive and she's just the nicest person. I love working with nice people... It just makes life so much more enjoyable — doesn't it.


If you want to take a swing by her new website to learn more about Ginny — click here.


Give life coaching some serious consideration. Do it for yourself and for that dream that keeps nagging at you. Your not getting any younger and life seems to have a way of zooming by.

I had sent Ginny an email after she sent us her announcement that she had launched her new website. In my email I thanked her for the work we had done together and I was finally able to put into words what I felt that coaching does for us. So I decided to make the image above with the sentiment. Thank you to all of the LIFE COACHES out there, that help to make our dreams come true!


xoxo Valerie

Love me... ~ sweet Cat painting

8" x 8"   |   acrylic on canvas

So I'm back on the cat bandwagon so to speak. I've been wanting to do some original art and sell it in my Etsy store for awhile now. I have been deterred from this because I'm really not a very fast painter and the AECO size is just a little too small for me. So, a couple of weeks ago I bought a box of these 8 x 8 inch square canvases. I love the size! And I am a big fan of the square format. I even love square greeting cards, though sometimes it costs a little more to mail them.


So here is my first little original cat painting titled...  "Love me". I am trying something different too with this new and funky abstract look. It's different from my more traditional looking cats. A little more fun and a looser style. I can get so lost in the details of painting, hence the reason why I am not that fast. 


I am a big fan of dog and cat rescue groups and all the work they do to rescue animals from high-kill shelters and place them in good homes. I got my sweet dog Lily thru a rescue organization seven years ago. I wasn't much of a cat person until I rescued my girl Tasha a few years ago from my front porch in the middle of winter. Now, I love cats. I want more cats! I look at pictures of cats all the time. I love to look at cat art. Am I turning into a crazy cat lady...hmmm?


Print of this painting is for sale in my Etsy store. Thanks so much for stopping by for a look!

Marry Me?

Will you marry me? Oh my, two little words that can change lives... I know that I mentioned that I was continuing my painting with a series of cats. My newest Valentine Cat that I made into a Valentine's Day card was here a couple of weeks ago. But then mr. frog prince showed up in my studio looking for some attention... So like a prince huh! I just finished him last night after making a couple of tweaks. 

And then I thought, OK, now what am I going to do with you. I can add him to my Etsy store as a straight illustration, but the words "Marry Me?" seemed to be wanting to be added. So that is what you see here. I'm still not too sure what to do with this image and copy. Below is the original painting before I added the, Marry Me? copy.


You can purchase of print of Mr. Frog Prince in my Etsy shop here!


What will your answer be to Prince Charming if he asked... "Will you marry me?

Though my painting was intended to be more of a toad than a frog, I think he could pass for either. You do remember the fairy tale of The Frog Prince by The Brothers Grim don't you? Well, let's just say that it may be one of the places that the phrase "...and they lived happily ever after" originated from. My sister told me about this new TV show called Once Upon a Time that takes place in Storybrooke, Maine. I've only seen the first pilot episode but it's an interesting modern day twist on the fairy tale concept.

So now that we have our prince, I thought that we'd need these other items like...  a princess, a castle, a coach, maybe a ring and of course "the shoe".

So there you have it... A perfect and ready-made fairy tale with the help of these images from Pinterest. The hopeless romantic in me had such a fun journey with this little prince!


Most of the images were collected from Pinterest. My apologies that some of the links do not go back to the original image source.


Castle: here
Coach: here
Princess: here
Ring: here
Shoe: here