Born: May 30th, 1928

Died: March 30th, 2006

In between: Miner, inventor, father and artist.

Perhaps art should go first. He's most famous for his art, but he should be known as a kind man, down-to-earth no matter how many Rolls he had in the garage.

He was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia. Its a mining town, and so its small, tight-knit and everyone is connected to the mines in some way. Broken Hill is where there are the typical Aussie houses: tin walls and roof, one or two rooms with a patch of dead grass out the front. Broken Hill is dry, mostly tree-less and beautiful.

But that's above ground. I've never been under in Broken Hill, only in Silvertown, a smaller town a short way south of Broken Hill, but I'm assured that its not nice. Dark, cruel and dangerous.

Pro didn't like it down under, and this is the reason that in many of his mining paintings the humans do not seem to be humans. The faces are blank, or gone, or made of metal, and shone with un-earthly light sources, influence from Pro's days under the dirt.

He was married in 1960 to Raylee June Tonkin and they had five children, John, Kym, Marie, Julie and David. David wrote Pro's story which shows a beautiful insight into the man's life. If you can read it, do.

Pro painted on everything, from carpet to canvas, and with everything, oils, pencil, spaghetti and jam, and worked both in 2D and 3D. Many of his paintings are of that landscape found around Broken Hill, or of the mine, but there are also some figure paintings, abstracts and pub and gaming paintings.

These paintings are amazing in photographs, and are more than impressive in real life. During his life he rode motorbikes and so had to learn how to fix them, as he lived during that time that you didn't need a mechanic, you did it yourself and hoped it would work. In Broken Hill there isn't much to do except mine, and no sane person should do that outside of work hours so Pro and several mates would take their bikes out around Broken Hill and do what they could with them; it turned into a minor attraction.

By selling his art he became quite wealthy, but that never changed anything and while my parents lived in Broken Hill (as medical people, thankfully they were among the few to avoid the mine) they dined with him and got to taste the wonders of his wife's cooking. I'm told it was wondrous, I was a few years away in the future.

He drove his stable of cars around the township, those cars included Chevrolets, Fords, Bentleys, and Rolls Royces, one of which he painted with the landscape of Broken Hill, and, of course, various motorbikes.

He also managed to collect many pieces of art during his life and they are now displayed in his house in Broken Hill, which is open to the public as a private art gallery. Over 400 artists are displayed there and its a beautiful home to wander in. Some of these artists are Albert Tucker, Brett Whiteley, Picasso, Arthur Boyd, Norman Lindsay, John Perceval, Charles Blackman, David Boyd and Fred Williams.

His daughter, Kym, has her artwork displayed in a smaller gallery down the street some way, and hers is not influenced by the underside of the mine, but she has his style and it is still very beautiful. Kym was the only child to truly follow in her fathers artistic steps.

Pro Hart died in the early hours of March 30th 2006 after 6 months of being unable to paint due to motor neurone disease. He will be remembered by many, and his art will be cared for in the years to come.

Oh, and why is he called Pro, not Kevin as his parents wanted? He always hated this question, but to put it simply, when he was younger he would make things, he wouldn't just fix his bike. For this, his mates called him the "Mad Professor" but they shortened this to just "Pro". Happy now?