Artist Bio

Afremov, Leonid. "Leonid Afremov." Fine Art America. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/leonid-afremov.html?page=5>.

Leonid Afremovs art is very unique by the way he paints. Afremov paints many different things. He mainly paints scenery like landscapes, cities, and seascapes, but he also paints flowers, animals, and portraits. He paints what he feels, and different memories he has experienced. His paintings are politically neutral, and are not offensive and don't send hidden messages. Afremov's art is very relaxing. Many psychologists and psychiatrists use his paintings in therapy procedures. Afremov enjoys traveling because It inspires him to create new paintings. Leonid Afremov was a struggling artist in his early life. Afremov was born in 1955 in Vitebsk, Belarus; the same town as one of his artistic role models Marc Chagall. Afremov was born to Jewish parents. They lived in a town where the government supported anti-Semitismin Soveit Russia. The family risked being thrown in jail for speaking Yiddish and practicing the Jewish religion. When Afremov was in school, he was a good student who got good grades and was interested in art, but he was bullied regularly for his Jewish heritage. Afremovs parents encouraged noticed his artistic abilities and encouraged his to create art. When Afremov was 14, he was faced extreme cold which ended up damaging his kidneys. Afremov graduated from Vitebsk Art School in 1978. He was then accepted into the Vitebsk Education Institute where he studied art and graphics department. In college, Afremov was exposed to the artwork of many artists, but was influenced most by Chagall and Modigliani. He took many art classes and private art lessons by local famous artists like Barowski. After graduating college in 1975, Afremov met his wife whom he married the next year. He then had his first son the following year and his second son in 1984. Because Afremov was Jewish, he was discriminated against in many aspects. Many art associations shunned him. In 1986 when the Chernobyl disaster occurred, the radiation began to affect the health of his family, and doctors couldn't do anything. Therefore he and his family migrated to Israel. They are still to this day Israeli citizens. In Israel, the same discrimination happened, but this time it was because they were Russian immigrants, and therefore they were not treated equally. When Afremov got a job, he wasn't paid the same, nor treated the same. While in Israel, he found that he enjoyed painting happy and joyful paintings because of what he was around. The sun influenced his bright and colorful paintings. Afremov mainly uses a palette knife with oil paint to create his masterpieces. Although it took him years to master the palette knife, it worked to give his paintings originality and impossible to recreate the same way. He was first introduced to the palette knife at one of his advertising jobs giving him some skills that he would later use in the future. When he sold his art to galleries, they would give him little money for the paintings, but sell them for so much more. But he had no choice; he was a starving artist, and he needed to feed his family. The cool thing about living in Israel was that he

met and became good friends with an Israeli jazz musician named Leonid Ptshka, who later inspired his musician inspired paintings. Afremov later got to open his own art gallery, which later got trashed and vandalized twice. The police did nothing for him both times. Because he didn't have much freedom where he lived, Leonid moved to New York in 2002. He got to paint for art galleries, but he didn't get to paint all what he wanted. The cold weather in New York also affected his health. He later moved to Florida. When Ebay was getting popular, Afremov's son gave him the idea to sell paintings online. Selling online was a huge success for him, and because of bad experiences with art galleries, Afremov only sells online. Afremovs painting sell for a lot of money nowadays too. Afremov is an artist that never wanted to be a famous or expensive artist; that life came to him. When on vacation, Afremov visited a resort in Mexico, and loved it. He moved to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico in 2010. His children now run the business aspect of his career due to Afremovs health issues. But Afremov continues to paint what he feels to this day. .