Hartman’s work is rooted in firsthand observation. Over the past decade, he has chartered planes to capture the city and its surrounding waterways from 1,500 feet above, while also sketching and photographing from the ground. His process combines aerial photography, watercolor studies, and direct experience walking through the landscape, allowing him to build each composition from memory and layered information.

In these new paintings, Hartman turns his attention to both the vibrant sprawl of New Orleans and the fragile communities along the delta. His sources range from early flights in 2012 to a 2023 aerial trip that inspired large-scale canvases of the city under vast skies, as well as vertical works mapping the barrier islands this past spring. From Grand Isle’s engineered recovery after hurricane damage to Isle de Jean Charles—a historic Native community now threatened with disappearance—Hartman records the landforms as they exist today, suspended between endurance and erosion.

While his paintings remain grounded in visual experience rather than political commentary, the shifting coastlines and tenuous survival of these communities form an unmistakable backdrop. Pointe-aux-Chênes, protected by levees, contrasts with surrounding areas where homes, farms, and entire ways of life face displacement. In these works, Hartman acknowledges both the permanence of human settlement and the precariousness of land itself.

The exhibition underscores Hartman’s enduring fascination with how city and delta appear from above—the patterns of water and ground, settlement and emptiness—while also recognizing the personal histories embedded in these landscapes. His palette shifts across bodies of work, reflecting the distinct atmospheres of each place: the soft expanse of cloud over New Orleans, the shifting blues and browns of the Gulf, the luminous edge where river meets sea.

John Hartman (b. 1950, Midland, Ontario) is celebrated for his large-scale paintings that merge landscape, memory, and community. His work has been exhibited widely across Canada and internationally, and is held in major collections including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Hartman is recognized for his painterly aerial views that reveal the interwoven relationship between people, land, and water.