Luc Leestemaker

Luc Leestemaker (1957-) Dutch/American, grew up in the Netherlands, where interests in art and theater led him into professions such as  founder of an Amsterdam based performing arts center; founder of the European art collective “Hart Poetry;” founder and editor of a monthly business and arts magazine; and managing director of “ Leestemaker & Associates,” a consulting firm specializing in arts' marketing, financing, and public relations. But it would be Leestemaker's long-standing interest in painting (his grandfather and great-grandfather were artists) that would ultimately command his devotion. Upon moving to the US in 1990, Leestemaker felt he was ready to fully commit to painting. Not unlike other European and Dutch artists, (particularly Willem de Kooning), living and working in the US, created a dramatic transition. His stylistic journey would take him from early inspiration by the CoBrA movement; through densely abstract expressionist art compositions; to the current “ Inner Landscape ” and “ Transfigurations ” Series, which are situated on the borderline of realism and abstraction and inspired both by Mark Rothko and 18 th Century Dutch and English landscape painters (notably Ruysdael, Constable). The larger canvases are first treated with a –thin- cement layer mixed with raw pigment powder, then worked into with acrylic paint and finished with an oil-based varnish. This fresco technique on the canvas creates a layered luminous sense of the work, which seemingly changes, in different shades of light. The smaller canvases making up the sets of the “ Inner Landscapes ” are made with the palette knife, and create a rich, layered look to the work. His work has over the years been featured in numerous film and television production, such as “Bringing Down The House,” “Spiderman,” “Erin Brockovitch,” “Simone,” America's Sweethearts,” “Shopgirl” a.o.  as well as major hotels and resorts including the Four Seasons Hotel and Mitsubishi in Tokyo, Japan.Galleries around the world exhibit his paintings. Comprehensive retrospective Museum solo exhibitions were scheduled for the artist in the main exhibition hall at the Bakersfield Museum of Art in California and the West Valley Art Museum in Phoenix AZ, in 2004. 2004 saw the publication of his second, hardbound book, “Luc Leestemaker / Paintings;” released by SWC Art Publishers. The   documentary “Swimming Through The Clouds; a Portrait of the Artist,” about Leestemaker's life and work, directed by Ruy Carpenter, has been selected for screening at a number of film festivals and was recently released on dvd. “Leestemaker's landscape paintings challenge us not only to identify where we are, but ask us to think about where we've been. And then, with the palpability of that rich paint, they draw us forward, further amplifying the question: Where are we going? “Peter Frank– Art Critic