John Hartman was born in 1950 in Midland, Ontario, and studied Fine Art at McMaster University. In the 1980s with the emergence of Neo-Expressionism, Hartman began to experiment with works that combined figurative, narrative and landscape traditions that would later evolve into the uniquely painterly expression for which he is acclaimed today. He received national exposure with the exhibit and catalogue Big North which toured the country between 1999 and 2002. Hartman works between his studio and home near Lafontaine and his island on Georgian Bay in Ontario, and frequently travels across North America and Europe sketching, photographing, and documenting landscapes, cities and their stories and histories for his paintings.