Luc Leestemaker is an artist. But the recession has turned him into a marketer, too.

“I need to keep myself in front of people,” he said from the $2 million house and studio he occupies in the shadow of the Hollywood sign.

The artist-entrepreneur has done that by, among other things, sending out hundreds of personal marketing e-mails to former and potential buyers, offering discounts on expensive works and lowering the price of commissioned pieces.

The goal is twofold, Leestemaker said: to make his generally well-heeled customers feel comfortable spending money in hard times on what many still consider a luxury, and to convince them that it’s not just a luxury.

His pitch: “Art has a direct impact on the mindset. It lowers your blood pressure, making you calmer and more creative. It opens up senses that can make you successful.”

Leestemaker, 52, started in the 1980s, running Leestemaker & Associates, an arts consulting firm in his native Netherlands. Then he moved to Los Angeles almost 20 years ago to launch his career as a painter. He was doing quite well, thank you, until the recession cut his sales and forced him to lower the prices of his paintings, which have sold for $500 up to $100,000. His revenues which reached as high as $5 million a year in the past are down by 60 percent.

Leestemaker’s abstract landscapes adorn the walls of such buildings as the Beverly Hills Hotel, Las Vegas’ MGM Grand and the chairman’s offices at 20th Century Fox. His list of celebrity clients includes Drew Barrymore, Whoopi Goldberg, Nancy Reagan and former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

The artist attributes his success to a strong business ethic; thinking of artwork as a brand that he spends half his time promoting.

Leestemaker expects that ethic to serve him well now that sales are significantly down.

He believes the recession will help him sell paintings.

“I’m doing more marketing,” he said. “If you stay in the room when others get out, you end up being the biggest in the room.”