Van Oort’s fascination with lighthouses began during his youth in the Netherlands, sparked by a memorable trip to a lighthouse on the island of Vlieland. Reflecting on the trip, Franc recalls, “I was just floored. I loved everything about it: the image, the power, the romance. It truly captured my imagination […].” This experience marked the beginning of the lighthouse motifs that would continue to appear in his work.

In 1986, Van Oort’s artistic attention was once again captured by lighthouses. This time, he encountered several during a trip taken to the Maritimes with his family shortly after emigrating to Canada. Moving to a new country, he brought with him his life, career, artistic heritage, and continued fascination with lighthouses: “I saw lighthouses everywhere, and I drew them. […] seeing all these different shapes, and some familiar, some totally new like the wooden lighthouses which I’d never seen in Holland.”

Although Lighthouse Window does not directly replicate a specific lighthouse, Van Oort used his sketches from the trip as a reference and incorporated components of various iconic lighthouses in Prince Edward Island. He described the final product as “more or less an interpretation,” explaining that he “[…] constructed it […] from different elements of various drawings I’d done.”

Many of his studies focused on the Souris Lighthouse, alongside a complete sketch of the Wood Island Lighthouse. These served as an initial step toward what would become one of his earliest etchings created on Canadian soil. His sketches reveal his distinct interest in features such as clapboard siding, dormer windows, and lantern rooms found in various P.E.I. lighthouses—striking elements evident in Lighthouse Window. Van Oort elaborated on the process of creating this composite image, stating, “The clapboard and the twelve panes of the window […] that you view the lighthouse through, it kind of came together after trying this, trying that, trying different ways to approach it, and eventually, I ended up with this.”

In his new home country, Van Oort’s artistic expression merged his Dutch heritage with the influences he encountered in Canada. Born into a family deeply engaged in the arts, Van Oort was surrounded by the rich history of printmaking in the Netherlands, an illustrious tradition exemplified by old masters such as Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669), who Van Oort praised as a pinnacle of technical draftsmanship.

Modernist artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972) is another Dutch printmaker whom Van Oort greatly admires. While their artistic styles differ, Van Oort notes that Escher’s use of optical illusions informed his own exploration of perspective, “[…] playing around with the possibilities of employing embossing in prints.”

Van Oort noted one particular well-known lithograph by Escher, Ascending and Descending (1960), that until the 1990s was in the collection of his wife’s family, who had known the artist in the Netherlands. The work engages optical perspective and geometric techniques to create a never-ending staircase, where the monks endlessly ascend and descend. Van Oort’s print espouses a comparable fascination with optics through its windowed perspective, as well as the lighthouse subject itself, which uses its Fresnel lens—which Van Oort describes as akin to a “glittering egg or diamond”—to create refracted and concentrated light.

As a country with vast coastal regions, Canada places great importance on lighthouses, not only for safety but also as iconic architectural structures, making them a beloved subject for artists across various mediums. For instance, Canadian artist David Blackwood (1941–2022)—who Van Oort names as a great inspiration since moving to Canada—is renowned for his portrayals of maritime experience in the North Atlantic, specifically Newfoundland.

Having moved from the densely populated and cultivated landscapes of the Netherlands to the vast and more rugged environments of Canada, Van Oort clearly shows an interest in the great presence of nature in the country. Much like Blackwood, his work pursues an interest in the juxtaposition of humans and nature, demonstrating how human structures can both disrupt and enhance natural settings. Franc explains how even when he creates a landscape with no visible human presence he is “still always a little bit tempted to put a little post somewhere or a remnant of a fence line […] It frames things, and it’s something to hold on to and something that I suppose people recognize […].”

Although both Blackwood and Van Oort draw inspiration from man’s interaction with nature, they approach it from distinctly different perspectives. Blackwood, hailing from a seafaring family, views the land and structures from a maritime viewpoint, exemplified for instance in Capt. Ed. Bishop with Officers on Bridge of S.S. Eagle (1969), whereas Van Oort’s perspective of the sea is rooted firmly on land. He explains his approach to lighthouses as one focused on their architectural appeal, stating, “It certainly isn’t from a seafarer’s perspective or a fisherman’s perspective. […] it’s the aesthetics of it. They’re usually in a sort of a lonely spot. They have to be very well constructed […] they have to withstand the forces of nature, so it has to be well built.”  Van Oort’s fascination with architecture is especially evident in the linear qualities of the lighthouse, particularly through the repetitive texture of clapboard siding—a fascination with line that lends itself well to the printed medium.

The recurring image of the lighthouse in Van Oort’s work gains deeper significance when considering his personal experiences with immigration and travel. Although Van Oort explicitly states that his frequent depiction of lighthouses does not seek to occupy the seafarer’s perspective, it remains intriguing that his artistic fascination centers on a structure the purpose of which is to welcome travelers as they approach land. Much of Van Oort’s art, like Lighthouse Window, is, in fact, inspired by his adventures away, explaining that he believes travel enhances one’s perception: “[…] when you travel, you bring a different set of eyes with you. […] So, I’m more alert and I’m just really on the lookout all the time […] And I fill sketchbook after sketchbook […].”

Van Oort also draws significant artistic inspiration from his home community of Perth, Ontario, where he settled shortly after relocating to Canada. Perth’s charming architecture, surrounding landscapes and its strategic location within the regional arts and crafts circuit influenced the artist’s family to choose the town as their home. This circuit included Kingston, where Franc was a featured artist at various craft shows and debuted his first exhibition in Canada at Gallery David, where Lighthouse Window was purchased for Agnes.

After a brief stint in Montebello, Quebec, Van Oort and his wife purchased an acreage outside of Perth in 1986, equipped with several outhouses, included a barn that Van Oort converted into a studio in 1987. Just as a lighthouse guides travelers home safely, Van Oort’s studio has served as his own personal beacon ever since. After his explorations, sketching lighthouses in communities near and far, he returns home to his studio, where sketches become carefully crafted etchings.