Luc Leestemaker, artist and author, died on May 18, his 55th birthday, after a battle with cancer.
Born in Hilversum, the Netherlands, in 1957, Leestemaker was largely self-taught as an artist but took inspiration and guidance from his grandfather, a painter in the Dutch court. In his native land, Leestemaker was an organizer and entrepreneur in several arts, including visual art, theater, and literature. Working in Amsterdam, he helped found a performing arts center, an art collective, and a monthly magazine devoted to business and the arts. He was managing director of Leestemaker & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in arts marketing, financing, and public relations that at its height boasted the Dutch government’s cultural portfolio as its most prominent client.
In the 1990s, Leestemaker moved to Los Angeles, where he discovered a new and gigantic life— a place where he could explore his creativity. Although he wrote and painted to pass the time in between odd jobs at first, his innate passion for painting quickly grew more serious. After becoming an accidental model/actor, he used his paychecks to pay for paint and paintbrushes. Out of a rented studio near L.A.’s Chinatown., Luc painted with heavy strokes, and in mostly, black and white. After spending a year in New York, Luc started to paint with more color and developed a style influenced by Abstract Expressionism in both its American and European forms. He took particular inspiration from the examples of Willem De Kooning and Karel Appel, other Dutchmen active in America. Leestemaker quickly evolved a more lyrical style, in which the expansive brushstrokes and vivid palette of Abstract Expressionism becalm themselves, ultimately taking on the composition and atmosphere of land- and seascapes.
Vigorous, and yet, imbued with art-historical reference, his paintings now had a distinctive and evocative style. His experience in marketing and public outreach had convinced Leestemaker 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 2006, the award-winning Canadian composer Vincent Ho used four paintings of the artist as inspiration for a chamber music work in four parts, titled “Four Paintings By Leestemaker.” Funded by the Canadian Arts Council this work was performed at a number of music festivals throughout China and Canada. In March 2012, Leestemaker was selected as a Star of Design 2012 in the art category by the Pacific Design Center.
Leestemaker’s work continues to be exhibited widely throughout North America and Europe, in museums, commercial galleries, and various public spaces.
Leestemaker leaves behind his companion, TV producer and designer Emily Lau.
LEESTEMAKER LEAVES HIS MARK ON LA JOLLA & SAN DIEGO
Luc Leestemaker played a vital role in strengthening and developing the arts community in the La Jolla / San Diego area. He brought his captivating artistic vision to over 10 exhibitions at Madison Gallery over the course of 6 years, as well as art fairs across the U.S. from the Hamptons to San Francisco. His works are included in the permanent collection at the La Jolla Anthenaeum Music and Arts Library, where in 2010 he gave a lecture on his inspiring book, The Intentional Artist, with Huffington Post art critic Peter Frank. Also in 2010, he and Madison Gallery owner Lorna York founded the Healing Art Fund, which donates works of art to medical facilities in the San Diego region to brighten the lives and promote the healing of those undergoing treatment.
Luc enriched our community not only with his extraordinary gift but with his voice, and will be greatly missed as a painter and dear friend. ~ Lorna York
MADISON GALLERY WILL BE REPRESENTING
THE LEESTEMAKER ESTATE.
