Staf Beerten - avondzicht op Beverlo

Staf Beerten was born in Beverlo in 1930 and lived in Paal since his marriage to Lucia. He practiced the profession of painter-decorator. Encouraged by Brother Max and Ludo Laagland, he followed a 4-year course from 1954 at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the National Higher Institute in Antwerp with, among others, Prof. Jan Wouters, Gustaaf De Bruyne, Carl De Roover and Antoon Marstboom. Wannes Van de Velde was his best-known fellow student there. During a first individual exhibition at the Casino van Beringen-Mijn (1957), he received a lot of positive reactions and he decided to continue living as a professional artist. Together with Ludo Laagland and Amand Van Rompay, he undertook study trips to the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Spain, the south of France, Bulgaria, etc. From 1963 he took part in a whole series of individual and group exhibitions at home and abroad. For about 6 years he was a painting teacher at the School of Fine Arts in Neerpelt and also in Beringen and Heusden. He became a member of, among others, Kunstkring Heikracht Neerpelt, Kunstkring Beringen of which he was co-founder in 1951, Palarte and Kunstkring Tessenderlo.