Luc Leestemaker (1957-2012) Dutch/American, grew up in the Netherlands, where interests in art, theater and communication led him into such diverse professions as remedial teacher; 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.

Throughout the years he subconsciously knew that he needed time to build the psychological framework for his art. 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. Landscapes have become Leestemaker's preferred subject matter as he feels that it is in these ‘atmospheric landscapes' that he can both express his emotion/intuition of the abstract compositions as well as the universally understood language of landscape painting.

Leestemaker sees the role of the artist as the shaman, or the Greek priest, translating the message of the gods into worldly understood action and matter. The painter does this visually. The tragic mistake of the romantic idea of the artist is that he has lost half of this message. This has cast the artist in the eternal role of the outsider, where as Leestemaker believes that the role of the artist is to fill the world with spirituality and make it whole.

Luc Leestemaker passed away May 18, 2012 following a battle with cancer