Lejnieks Kārlis

Kārlis Lejnieks was born on May 17, 1911 in the farm Reķi of the Kuldīga County’s Planīca parish. He studied at the Liepāja Art Studio under the guidance of K. Ubāns and at the Latvian Academy of Arts (from 1936). In the fine arts workshop of G. Eliass he elaborated, but did not graduate his art project “The bread kneader”, since he left the academy in 1942. During his studies, he stayed at K. Ubāns home for some time.

He worked as a teacher at the Kuldīga Applied-Arts Secondary School (1948-1952) and at the Liepāja Art High School (1952-1971). After that, he lived in Kuldīga, managed Kuldīga Art Studio, wrote art related articles, was also engaged in weaving, he himself designed and constructed weaver looms.

Member of the Union of Artists since 1959. He participated in exhibitions since 1950. Personal exhibitions were organized in Liepāja (1967, together with J. Lauva and M. Zavickis; 1971, 1972, 1976), in Talsi (1968), in Kazdanga (1970), in Kaunas (1972), in Priekule (1977), in Kuldīga (1977, 1981, 1984, together with V.Līcītis and V. Rasa), in Nīca (1980), a tribute exhibition was also held in Kuldīga (1986). In the framework of the Art Days in 1964, he was awarded the diploma of the Union of Artists.

Kārlis Lejnieks painted mainly landscapes. His understanding of nature and its finesse was very close to that in paintings by K. Ubāns. He also painted portraits.