Leonid Afremov is a true artist of the XX century, great experimenter and heedful keeper of impressionistic traditions. He was born 1955 in Vitebsk, Belarus, in a Jewish family of a shoe designer and metallurgical plant constructor. As we see, passion for shape and color was part of the genes he received from his ancestors. Little Leonid showed great interest in painting. From early years, he was enthusiastically attending all possible painting classes and even taking private lessons from mature painters.
In 1973, Afremov Leonid entered the faculty of arts at a local pedagogical university, where he spent six fruitful years and made his first real attempts at painting. His first works were influenced by Chagall and Modigliani, and he regularly participated in various exhibitions. It was then that he met his wife, Inessa Kagan. Leonid fell in love at the first glance, and it was mutual. The two young people married soon, and one year before graduation Afremov first held his newly born son Dmitry. In 1984, his second son Boris was born.
While living in the USSR, Leonid worked as a decorator. His hands were always full of work. He decorated kolkhozes, exhibition and assembly halls and had little time to paint. In 1990, the Khrushchev Thaw forced him to leave the country and move to Israel. This trip played a crucial part in his evolution as a painter. For a couple of years, Afremov just plunged into work. Drawing signboards and making frames in a little shop helped him adapt in the new environment. And one day he just felt an irresistible desire to paint.
Since then, Afremov has produced numerous paintings and prints on canvas that are sold all around the world. Bright colors and sunny climate of Israel have filled his works with cheerfulness and optimism. He mostly creates flower and landscape prints, city sketches, portraits and wall art. Leonid has developed a unique palette knife technique that singles him out among other modern impressionists. His wall art prints adorn hundreds of houses and the army of his fans keeps growing.
In search of new opportunities, Afremov met the twenty first century in the U.S., where his sons took over the commercial part of his craft. His paintings became much more than just bread and butter, they grew into a family business. Thanks to Dmitry and Boris, we can now buy prints online from the first hands. In 2010, the family of Afremov moved to Mexico, where Leonid acquired a rancho far away from civilization to enjoy peaceful nature and paint to his own pleasure. He devotes a lot of time to cultural education, travelling and opening new horizons of art, for art is infinite and so is human potential.
web site with prints – www.afremovartist.com
Source: afremovartist.com
