‘‘Luc Leestemaker was a painter of space, increasingly, of pure space.’’
PETER FRANK, ART CRITIC
About Luc
“Luc Leestemaker was a painter of space, increasingly, of pure space,” remarked critic, Peter Frank. “Leestemaker anchors us on earth by composing each landscape painting around a horizon line; but for that, we could be adrift in the cosmos.”
Like many artists, Leestemaker dedicated his entire life trying to get to “the heart of it”--to that vulnerable place where the ego has disappeared, and that his paint to canvas is a true expression of himself. He left an incredible legacy of paintings, writings, documentaries, and musical works behind in only a short twenty-five year career span.
Born in Hilversum, Netherlands, Leestemaker’s family boasted several accomplished painters but he did not discover his artistic self till his mid 30’s. After immigrating to the United States, Leestemaker finally settled in Los Angeles where he developed his iconic landscape-inspired paintings.
“After I went through the process of writing as a creative outlet,” Leestemaker once observed, “I really felt that I needed to reach into something deeper, where the mind does not directly need to be involved to make decisions…I mean it’s truly an intuitive process that gets me to a place where the canvas starts talking to me, telling me what it needs to create some sort of balance.”
His early works assumed the form of an expansive empty land-, sea- or skyscape that attracted collectors from New York, where he moved in the mid-1990s, to the Hollywood elite. Shortly thereafter, his career took off and he rented a studio in Downtown Los Angeles. Some early exhibitions and group shows included Barnsdall Art Park; Southern California Gas Company; Miramax Films, New York; 48 Market Street Gallery, Venice; and BBDO Advertising LA, and any other location willing to show his work.
Raw pigments and cement started entering the canvas, creating a more sculptural approach to the work by the late 90’s. Leestemaker’s artwork changed after severe eye problems and surgery. Small canvases were painted in sets in a quilt-like fashion, as well as, oversized canvases were painted in a more expressionistic approach. His terracotta primer became a trademark that gave a new depth as well as an authenticity mark for his collectors. Leestemaker considered himself to be the quintessential expression of the “American” painter.
The next decade brought Leestemaker increasing notoriety among galleries, museums, collectors and art consultants. Museum exhibits included a retrospective at the Bakersfield Art Museum, California, and West Valley Art Museum, Phoenix. Numerous solo Exhibitions were held at galleries in Boston, MA; Zurich, Switzerland; Santa Monica, CA; Santa Fe, NM, Palm Desert, CA; Palm Beach, FL, and Atlanta, GA.
Always interested in how art could reach an audience beyond the traditional walls, Leestemaker collaborated with a number of developers, architects, designers and movie studios to successfully integrate his paintings into public spaces and movie sets including “Spiderman,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Fracture,” and “Shopgirl.” Collections and projects also included Bellagio Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV; Four Seasons Hotel, Bahamas; Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA; Miyako Hotel, Tokyo, Japan; McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, NV, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Los Angeles, CA; Toyota USA Headquarters, Torrance, CA; Genzyme Headquarters, Boston, MA.
Leestemaker’s experience in marketing and public outreach convinced him that artists have a public role to play even beyond the presence and impact of their work. He advocated this public role to artists and non-artists alike, lecturing and giving workshops on the creative process, the artist’s identity, and the symbiosis between artist and society. To this end, Leestemaker published a memoir-like book, “The Intentional Artist: Stories From My Life,” in 2010.
Several other books and catalogues, including the monograph “Luc Leestemaker: Paintings” (2004), have documented Leestemaker’s oeuvre, as has the widely-screened film “Swimming Through The Clouds: A Portrait of the Artist” (2008), directed by Terence Gross and Ruy Carpenter.
In March 2012, Leestemaker was selected as a Star of Design in the art category by the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, CA. In his acceptance speech at this awards ceremony, Leestemaker remarked that the award was “a coming home in a way.” After all, nearly two decades before he was a starving artist in a one-bedroom apartment in Hollywood thinking, “How am I going to make it as an artist?”
On May 18, 2012, Leestemaker passed away peacefully on his 55th birthday. As well as being a part of major corporate and private collections, Leestemaker’s work continues to be exhibited in museums, galleries, and various public spaces widely throughout North America and Europe. In 2014, Luc’s work debuted in China for exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing (MoCA Beijing).