Raphaella's watercolor paintings range from vibrant layering effects of color upon color which have become her trademark, to simple, colorful expressions of hearts, flowers and abstracts. Echoes of her Norwegian cultural history, a love of Rosemaling, and an early fascination with Impressionism are evident in her early work. Her larger paintings are so intricate they often take years to complete. Less complex work includes acrylics as well as a large collection of posters, magnets and quotes. Although she painted her first mural in Kindergarten at five years old, it would be many years before Raphaella completed her first watercolor painting in 1981. Since then, she has consistently sold her work to collectors around the world.
Born a Norwegian in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1984 she changed her name from Barbara Jo Bergan to her artist name, Raphaella Vaisseau. Always in love with everything French, she picked the surname "Vaisseau" to more fully express her intention to be "a vessel of Light through which I may express my inner essence: heaven to earth, earth to heaven, people to people, heart to heart."

Raphaella now resides in Marin County, California, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. In her art, color is her gift and her love. "I interpret the magic of the natural world, and all things in it, as if I were looking through a crystal portal from another dimension - a dimension where color exists as an end in itself and thereby is a vehicle for transformation."

In 1991, Raphaella started her commercial art business. Through Heartful Art, she offers countless opportunities for people everywhere to honor, respect and love each other, and to embrace and celebrate the diversity within and among us. She offers words and images to express beauty, sincerity, and love between people and all living things. Heartful Art is about "assisting people everywhere to empower themselves and others." Her specialty is providing people with words to say what’s in their hearts to those they love. Her song, “A Wedding Prayer” was read by the father of the bride at the wedding of Jimmy Carter’s grandson.
Monthly "Empowerment Events" at the gallery offer customers presentations of entertainment and information on a variety of topics. These free events provide yet another opportunity to empower, inspire and build community.

Heartful Art is available in many stores around the world. Raphaella's original paintings are periodically on exhibit in select U.S. galleries, as well as in her own Heartful Art Gallery, which opened in Sausalito on June 2, 2001. On April 1, 2004, the gallery expanded to its present location at 21 Princess Street.