Alejandro De Jesús was born in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico but grew up in the town of Caguas. As a child he drew and painted all the images he liked: super heroes, faces, cars, monsters and the like. He remembers doing many illustrations at his grade school before every holiday. At the age of ten he received a scholarship from The City of Caguas to study art under the tutelage of Victor Torres Lizardi, a professional artist from Caguas who awakened in him, his everlasting love for art. Torres Lizardi led him in his first serious steps in art through working in mediums of charcoal, tempera, and oil. At fifteen his family moved to New York City, where he was impressed by the masters’ work shown at museums. Alejandro DJ studied at Famous Artists School in Westport, Connecticut, and The Art Students League of New York.
Back in his home island, he studied at The Art Students League of San Juan, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Escuela de Artes Plásticas and the University of Puerto Rico, where he graduated with honors. He uses pastel, acrylic but mostly oil paints. He is a natural figurative and portrait artist but also likes painting any offbeat subject. In 1985 he founded Estudio Alejandro DJ, an art school in Caguas born of a genuine interest for a figurative art education. He dedicated 28 years of his life to teaching children and adults basic and advanced drawing and painting principles in the traditional method. In 1987 he received an award for his oil painting The Hat Salesman from The Art Students League of San Juan. This work and another of his oil paintings titled The Class were acquired by the Caguas Museum of Art to be part of its permanent collection. Alejandro’s work has been exhibited widely in group and solo shows in the United States and Puerto Rico.
In 1997 he traveled to Europe where he visited over twenty-five museums in France, Spain, Italy, Brussels and Holland. During this trip he had the opportunity to closely observe and analyze old master paintings of his idols, like Rembrandt, Velazquez, Sorolla, Goya, El Greco, Van Gogh, Caravaggio and Vermeer. Alejandro is an artist who claims that he follows the true fundamentals of oil painting and is very serious about his duty to teach them. He is a constant student of oil painting and for six years he wrote and videotaped these fundamentals for his Spanish speaking students. His five-video oil painting course, translated from Spanish to English, titled Oil Painting Fundamentals has been praised and purchased by art students in many countries. This course has also been acquired by prestigious art schools in Puerto Rico as a resource for their art classes. Alejandro is also the author of a book with the same title, translated to the English language. He stays in touch with his students through the Facebook group Fundamentos de la Pintura al Oleo.
