Sam Dillemans was born on 17th January 1965 in Leuven.
He lives and works in Antwerp (Borgerhout).

1977 Discovers world literature and Russian prose in particular. The beginning of a powerful and abiding love for literature.

1979 As the result of a far-reaching confrontation with the work of Vincent Van Gogh, begins painting enthusiastically after school.

1981-1988 Visits five art academies in Flanders. Four crucial years in the Leuven Academy of Art, where he devotes himself full-time to drawing (using a study material: plaster sculptures, the anatomy of Paul Richer, copies of Old Masters, the textbooks of Beverly Hale).

1989 Graduates from the Tourcoing Academy of Art (North France).

1993-1996 Gives drawing lessons at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts in Antwerp and in 1998 is guest lecturer at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Flanders.

1995-2000 Spends five inspired years working towards one and the same model which ultimately offers him a whole arsenal of sculpting opportunities.

2000-2003 Returns via painted interpretations to his first love: the Old Masters.

2002 Takes up the sport of boxing, which from 2003 to 2007 results in a multi-coloured series of boxing portraits and boxing scenes.

2008 The documentary "De waanzin van het detail" about Sam Dillemans from the production house Woestijnvis wins the FIPA d'Or in Biarritz.

2010-2012 Paints more than 300 portraits of mainly writers, but the series also includes a number of composers, painters and scientists.

Explores landscape painting again from 2014.

2015 Inauguration of the painting of the conductor Mariss Jansons commissioned by 'Royal Concertgebouworchestra, Amsterdam'

2016 Opening of the Exhibition Gallery Sam Dillemans close to his studio in Borgerhout.

2017 Donation of the painting YPRES to the city of Ieper. This work can be seen at the Flanders Fieds Museum in Ieper.

2018 Goodbye To All That - paintings of the Great War.

2018 Donation of the painting Hommage to Rubens: The Descent From The Cross to the Cathedral of Antwerp. This painting is exhibited next to and in confrontation with the original painting from Rubens.

2019 FIGHTERS - paintings and drawings of boxers and athletes.

2022 Inauguration of Two War Landscapes in the university Library of KU Leuven.