Brianne Valentino Turned a Painting Practice Into a Mural Business

A blackboard wall inside the Chick-fil-A at Paramus Park Mall in New Jersey carries a mural by Brianne Valentino. She secured the collaboration the way she gets most of her work: by walking up to a business and asking. Having a national brand in her pitch deck changed what she could ask for next.

Brianne Valentino is the founder of Brianne Valentino LLC, a studio built on murals, abstract fine art, and photography. She paints commercial and residential murals, sells originals through her shop, and places work with galleries in Philadelphia and Millburn, New Jersey. A lifetime member of the Entreprenista League, her path from a Polaroid camera to painted walls came down to one habit, which is telling people what she makes.

The camera came first

Her founder journey started with a birthday gift. Her aunt handed her a point-and-shoot Polaroid camera. In high school, she signed up for photography classes and learned the basics of film using her uncle’s passed-down, old film camera.

She studied photography at Sussex County Community College, finished her associate degree, and transferred to Montclair State University for her BFA. Her class’s thesis exhibition ended with her winning the area award for photography. One of her photographs later appeared in the Chania International Photo Festival in Crete, Greece.

Painting became the release

Painting arrived under harder circumstances. Several family members were diagnosed with cancer, and Brianne started going into her studio to build 3-dimensional layered paintings while she carried the grief.

“Painting was an emotional release and allowed a way to express myself fully without affecting other people’s emotional state,” she says.

She lost her grandmother and her aunt. She kept painting anyway, kept finding joy in it, and put real hours into learning the medium. Studying color theory and composition moved her work toward complementary color, neon hues, and the layered texture her collectors buy now.

Registering the business made it real

Brianne knew early that she wanted to work for herself. “I never last long working at a 9-5,” she says. “I enjoy having the flexibility of deciding what I am going to accomplish for the day.”

The push came inside a photography course she took to learn the back-end of running a studio. The teacher told her to officially register her business so people would take her more seriously. “Once I did, I knew it was meant to be,” she says.

Murals, awnings, and a mall blackboard

She turned a weathered awning into a storefront people notice for Delectable Delights Baking in Branchville, New Jersey. She won a mural contest and finished a layered piece in the RAM Gallery entryway in 9 hours. She has painted living rooms for homeowners who came in with a color and a feeling and left with a wall.

Her studio takes on homes, boutique hotels, restaurants, and co-working spaces, and every project starts with photos, dimensions, and a phone call. Then there is the Chick-fil-A blackboard, the job she names first when she talks about proud moments. “It feels amazing to have a major company in my pitch deck,” she says.

Her fine art runs in parallel. Originals hang with NoName Gallery in Philadelphia and J. Nunez Gallery in Millburn, New Jersey, and she debuted a solo exhibition, Value People, at Green Door Studio. Her buyers are business owners and people who appreciate art.

Getting out of the house

One of her first paintings sold to someone she worked with. Social media carries the business now, along with showing up in person and saying that she is an artist, as well as asking other businesses to collaborate.

She wishes she had known at the start “to do more coffee chats.” Her habit scales up once a year at Founders Weekend, where the coffee chat becomes a room full of women founders introducing themselves in person for the first time.

Sicily, a retreat, and the next wall

Brianne was recently awarded an artist residency in Sicily, Italy where she will spend 2 weeks painting. “I am so excited!” she says.

The plan from here is more of the same at a larger scale. More mural collaborations with other founders, an art exhibition abroad, and a retreat. You can follow Brianne on Instagram and LinkedIn, browse her originals at briannevalentino.com, and see her mural work and booking process here.

If Brianne's approach to building an art business one introduction at a time resonates, the Entreprenista League is a community of women founders who value connection, shared experience, and practical business insight as they grow. Learn more about the Entreprenista League right here.