Karel Lek was born in Antwerp in 1929. While growing up he was to experience first hand the rise of anti-Semitism especially after the Nazi invasion of Belgium. His mother consequently lost nearly all her family in the Holocaust, but his father held dual Belgian-British citizenship because Karel Lek's great-grandfather had spent six years in London cutting the diamonds for Queen Victoria's new crown. They were therefore able to flee as refugees to Britain in 1940 and here made their home in North Wales where Karel Lek still lives. His father Hendrik Lek ARCA who died in 1986 also painted and successfully exhibited.
Karel Lek studied at Liverpool College of Art and has been a Member of the Royal Cambrian Academy since 1955. He has exhibited regularly across Wales but has also shown in London, Amsterdam and Chicago. His work has recently been purchased by the National Library of Wales for their permanent collection. In 2003 He was awarded the MBE.
His people pictures are probably the best-known aspect of his work. He keeps a sketchbook with him and captures people going about their everyday business, whether walking the dog or shopping at the supermarket. He is a great observer of the ordinary capturing maybe the tension in the slope of a shoulder or perhaps an unconscious gesture between two people. Some of these drawings become finished artworks while others are taken back to his studio to be worked into paintings.
He is also a landscape painter but prefers the seasons of autumn or winter in which to paint this subject. It is the summer that the many of his paintings of people are made. He does not restrict himself to the outdoors. He may also be seen at jazz or classical concerts, unobtrusively sketching the performing musicians. Indeed Karel Lek is a keen jazz musician and may often be found in the foyer of his local hospital playing and collecting for charity.
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