John Katerberg’s Art Story

John Dennis Katerberg was born in 1960 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, the son of Dutch immigrants. As a child, he was keen to draw. His mother’s drawing demonstrations showed how to draw stick people with brooms for arms. He imitated carefully.

When he was nine years old, his parents decided to get rid of the family television set and all of its influences, and replaced it with multiple sets of encyclopedias. John absorbed the volumes, and thereby became familiar with art history, the old masters, and current contemporary artists.

Ken Danby, one of Canada’s foremost artists, lived nearby, and his son attended school with John. John recalls Ken Danby’s school presentation about his egg tempera painting method. He also remembers being at the artist’s home at the historic Armstrong Mill when his father, a home builder, had a meeting regarding a building project there.

The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto was a school trip destination. There, John appreciated the art of The Group of Seven, and wildlife artist Glen Loates.

At the age of thirteen, he did his first oil paintings. His first oil on canvas panel went to his grandmother. Some of his relatives wondered where his talent came from, and supposed that he got it from his mother, since she had an interest in drawing. But John recalled that his mom drew stick people, so his uncles and aunt’s theory that talent is inherited genetically didn’t seem plausible to him.

Then came Katerberg’s high school years of the 1970’s. As a student of Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute, he noticed posters in the school hallways that inspired him. The posters advertised rock concerts that were being held at the school auditorium. At the time, it was common for rock bands to use high school venues when on tour. These posters were cool and creatively stylized. The images looked like photographs, although it was obvious that they were pencil drawings. The posters had been duplicated using the blueprint machine in the drafting classroom, so they were printed in monotone blue. John learned that the artist who drew the posters for these rock concerts was a student at the school. John thought that if that student could make art like that, he himself should be able to do it too. Thus, his first main art inspiration was not a big name artist of renown, but a fellow student. John put his drawing pencils to work and discovered that he could achieve results that rivalled the rock poster artist. High school art awards came annually, as did drafting awards. He was offered the art school grant in his final year at the collegiate.