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Daan Hoekstra is the founder and director of Atelier Sonorense.
A classically trained painter of landscapes, still lifes and figurative work, he has exhibited widely in the United States and Mexico. Also known as a muralist, he has been commissioned to work in commercial, residential and religious settings.
Hoekstra began doing art at a young age, encouraged by an aunt who was a professional artist. He studied printmaking and liberal arts at the University of Dallas, and especially appreciated the art history courses given by Lyle Novinski and Christian Norberg-Schulz. Hoekstra visited the Uffizi, Vatican, Prado and Louvre museums during a University of Dallas Rome semester program.
Hoekstra received his artistic education in the traditional atelier system of training under artist Richard Lack. This makes him part of a master-pupil lineage that can be traced back to 19th century masters such as Jacques Louis David.
During his years at Atelier Lack, Hoekstra also worked as a buon fresco assistant for his Atelier Lack colleague Mark Balma, a student of Pietro Annigoni as well. Daan assisted Balma on all phases of the fresco project at St. Mary's College, from slaking lime and grinding pigments to actual plastering and painting.
Hoekstra was the founding editor of a journal for practicing traditional painters, Classical Realism Quarterly, serving from 1984-1987.
He began his own mural company in 1992, and has been painting murals professionally ever since. His current focus is on fresco painting.
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