Pros Putteman, a rugged dreamer
To pay a tribute to his father who died too soon, Lieven fits up his restaurant as a permanent gallery.
	It was on Good Friday, April 5th 1985 that the artist Pros Putteman died, the one Karel Jonkheere called, in a rather enigmatical way, "a rugged dreamer". With him disappeared one of the last colour bearers of expressionism who "paints the way Felix Timmermans ate and drew". That's how the gastronomic reporter Etienne Coquyt described him in an interview at De Plezanten Hof a few weeks before he died.
	"Pros is a nature man. He drinks colours, feeds on nostalgia and bewitches works of art". Great contemporary masters of arts render homage to him for his paintings in which men vanish in landscapes op pre-war period" (Culinary Magazine March 1985).

Short Biography
1928	Pros Putteman was born in Lebbeke. He had a classical education (Greek-Latin) during the war years and from 1946 till 1951 he studied at the Sint-Aloysius High School in Brussels.
1948	He took part in a group exhibition in Lebbeke. He discovered that he had a real gift to be an actor and in 1948 he received the "National Theatre Price" in Mechelen for a play of Lode Campens "Moordenaar Gods" in which he played the part of Barrabas. He also had a distinction in rhetoric talking competitions in 1948 and 1949. However, the painter got the better of the actor.
1954 1957	He married Huguette Vercammen and he left Belgium to Africa (Belgian Congo) where he stayed until 1957. He then settled in Zaventem where he became conscious of his talent for painting, especially landscapes and figures. Since then, he has exhibited his pictures several times in Zaventem and in many other places of his beloved Flemish country.
1965	Pros Putteman settled not far from the Averbode Abbey to spend weekends and holidays with his family.
1977	Over and above his many profane paintings, he developed a religious feeling that strongly impregnated him. He created "De Kruisweg" in 1977, "Het Moeder Marialeven" in 1980 and "Het Nieuwe Testament" in 1981.
1985	He died on Good Friday, April 5th.

Other permanent exhibitions of religious paintings
‘De Kruisweg’ (The stations of the Cross) in the Averbode Abbey (1977) ‘Moeder Marialeven’ (The life of Mary, mother of God) in the Church Onze-Lieve-Vrouw in Zele-Kouter (1980) ‘Het Nieuw Testament’ (The New Testament) in the Norbertine Abbey in Grimbergen (1981)