John Mahnic was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, where he lived with his wife Val and children Mike and Tiffany until 1989. During that year John, a high school art teacher, moved his family to Inuvik, Northwest Territories to teach at the most northern high school in the world. A visit to Santa at the North Pole was closer than a flight south to Edmonton, Alberta. After three years in Inuvik, another adventure took John and his family to Lahr, Germany, where he taught for another three years at a Canadian military base. It was during that time in Europe that John started to seriously study the Renaissance artists. He started to implement the detailed, layered glaze approach that artists like Leonardo daVinci and Raphael had developed in their day. Almost all of the paintings featured on the website were done in that style, including the “Santa” painting. Today, John is teaching art at a high school in Guelph, Ontario, inspiring students to reach out and achieve their dreams. Who knows, if they reach for the stars but fall a bit short, they could end up at the North Pole!