Léonce Lemmens is a Dutch painter, born in Maastricht (Netherlands, 1955). In her youth Léonce Lemmens always was drawing and painting. She wanted to become a fashion designer and studied at the Art Academy in Maastricht. Her plans changed: during her study she seized the opportunity to work at an advertising agency. A job that led her quit the Academy. After some years in the advertising/public relations world she took a different path and the next decades she had a meandering career, working in healthcare and corporate organizations. Throughout her life, Léonce's art had been private domain. That was until 2014 when she -being an avid traveller- made a trip to the Mongolian side of the Gobi Desert. This particular experience cut right through her being and reawakened whatever had drawn her to paint in the first place. Painting has her full attention ever since and she found her way in abstraction. Léonce creates abstract expressionist paintings, and she works with acrylics, oil, mixed media, ink, spray paint on canvas and paper. Her paintings are mostly made of dozens of layers. Applied paint gets removed again, after which new layers are created with new elements and colors. It's a playful and inquisitive recess, resulting in pieces that tell their own story. Léonce Lemmens currently lives at the Dutch countryside, after several years staying alternately in the Caribbean and The Netherlands. STATEMENT: "In my paintings I try to capture the ephemeral, that which lies beyond words or reason. It just comes natural. My inspiration comes from occurrences in daily life, people I meet, contrasts spotted in nature or cities, architecture, mix of cultures. What touches my heart I translate in my paintings. I love to explore and mix colors and materials. As result I sometimes mess up a painting, but this can also be the start of something unexpected new. Painting is fun, sometimes it can be a struggle: is it enough, is it ready, is it too much? However, it's always an adventure."