Unleashing Your Inner Expression!

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Sue Hayes | 0 comments

Allan de Haan grew up in Smithers and Campbell River with an early interest in art; always drawing monsters of one sort or another!

The biggest thing as he got older was that he needed artistic expression and took classes in figure drawing and stained glass, always looking for some medium that would allow his inner expression to be unleashed. After many different attempts at making extra money he met an artist named Patrick Logan who lived in Campbell River. His expression of art was something that he truly fell in love with.

He remembers saying to Patrick that if I was ever to paint that he would choose to block his colors as he did. Stained glass was his art of choice and every color is blocked by lead. It was during this period that he learned about himself as one of his big interests became philosophy and the study of his own human nature.

“Know thyself” comes to his mind and coupled with an ever widening regard of the great outdoors he became an outdoors enthusiast always looking to reach further out into the land and yet trying to always further reach into himself.

Whilst living in Victoria B.C. Allan and his daughter created banners for the Campbell River banner project and finally he found himself and started to paint. All the steps of a lifetime finally became realized in a melting pot of understanding that he had finally found his calling. He had found ways to limitlessly express himself in a way that was all unto himself.

“What I know is that if you put your mind to something that you love, something will come back to you ten fold in return and that the energy you put forth into something you love is an energy that feels as if there was no effort in creating it.”

You can find more of Allan’s beautiful West Coast Art at

Posted in allan de haan west coast art

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About Side Street Studio

The story of Side Street Studio is more than the history
of a business. It is the physical expression of a belief
that real art should be accessible to everyone. It is
also the evolution of a business model supported by
principles of community-building economics.

Here’s how it happened.. read more