Art in the suburbs

It’s not difficult to pick out John van der Hart’s house on Eighth Line. It’s the only one with the 30-foot observation tower and an art gallery in the front yard.

There’s a simple explanation for the unique features that decorate the 78-year-old artist’s home: he wants to share his art with the entire world.

Last Thursday, he sat in his front garden with flecks of paint still on his hands and face, surrounded by his paintings. The large format oil paintings, some of which were self-portrait nudes were propped up for optimum viewing from the street.

“This is a natural way of expressing myself,” said the long-time North Oakville resident. “I find it wonderful.”

Van der Hart moved to his home on Eighth Line in 1971. In time, a subdivision was built up around his house when he stubbornly refused to sell to a developer.

He always had one or two works of art adorning his front yard, but last April he dragged more than a dozen canvases into his garden to create his “natural gallery.”

Originally from Holland, van der Hart has been a professional artist for 40 years and is well respected for his watercolour paintings. He moved to Canada after being inspired by the county’s natural beauty.

Last year, he decided he wanted a change from watercolour and began using oil paints. He said he preferred oil paints for several reasons including the grand scale of the pieces, the fact that an artist can continue to work on the pieces over time and that they had more of an emphasis on the human form.

“Watercolour art, they are without people. These are landscape paintings and if they put people in it they put people in it looking at their backs,” he said, “never face on because if they do that, the landscape around it disappears for a subject matter.”

He then looked to the end of his driveway to provide him with a potentially limitless audience.

“I have thousands of cars passing everyday,” he said gesturing towards vehicles whizzing by his works of art.

“People come, they drive slow, I sit in the entrance of the gallery, they wave, I wave back”

“I communicate with them. They are my neighbours. I am their neighbour.”

Van der Hart feels that he and his neighbours share a mutually beneficial relationship. To him, his installation is allowing those who would not normally go to art galleries the opportunity to see art.

“They would never come in my gallery and look at it. But they see them here,” he said. “And so I have enriched their lives a little. And it’s the same with passing cars.”

There are some people, however, who believe his paintings are too risqué for the neighbourhood.

Van der Hart recalled last year seeing one of his neighbours taking pictures of his paintings on his lawn. There were self-portrait nudes in his collection.

The Town by-law office called him two days later asking him to take his paintings down. They told him they had received a complaint from one of his neighbours who said one of his paintings might damage her children’s mind.

“I said, ‘you’re kidding. No way, these are my paintings,’” he explained.

He did, however, put leaves over his painting’s genitals to satisfy those with delicate sensibilities.

“My purpose is to get more people to come out here,” he said, looking out over his many paintings. “To give them a reason because people might not be used to this type of painting at all, ever. If you don’t go to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) they might never have seen it.”