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Katya Pilkington
Mr. Frampton
ART 1010
10 January 2016
Leonid Afremov: The Colorful Impressionist
An artists ability to express his art and inspire his audience is not limited by the era in
which they are born or the hardships or discrimination they face. Leonid Afremov is one of these
inspirational artists in my life. From his background and efforts to his style of painting, his
artwork brings his viewers into a colorful, expressive view of the world.
Life and Career of Leonid Afremov:
According to his biography on his personal website, Leonid Afremov was born on the
twelfth of July in 1955 to a Jewish family, living in Vitebsk, Belarus for the first 35 years of his
life. Early on, he and his parents became aware of his artistic abilities and he was encouraged to
practice this ability through both private lessons and classes in school. After graduating from the
Vitebsk high school in 1973, he went on to study the arts in college at the Vitebsk Education
Institute, where he was introduced to a variety of artists and art styles. Particularly important,
Afremov was introduced to the work of March Chagall, Picasso, Dali, Modigliani, and the 19th
century French Impressionism. His early artistic work was very influenced by Chagall and
Modigliani (Leonid Afremov Bio). Continuing on, it states that he was an elite graduate of the
Vitebsk Art School by 1978 and furthered his studies through one-on-one lessons (Leonid
Afremov Bio).

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Afremovs biography continues as he follows the next stage in his life. Married in 1975 to
Inessa Kagan and a father by 1977 to Dmitry, Leonid held a few small jobs using his artistic
abilities. He became a free-lance worker by early 1980s for a variety of local events, often
involving communism and propaganda, during which time he became a father yet again to Boris
in 1984. Living close enough to feel the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and tired of the
discrimination he faced from being Jewish, Leonid moved his family to Israel in May of 1990
(Leonid Afremov Bio).
Furthering his biography, after moving to Israel and becoming an official citizen, a status
which he still holds today, Leonid worked in an advertising shop, and then a framing shop. Still
facing discrimination, this time for being a Russian immigrant, Leonid struggled to sell his
paintings for a fair price until Dmitry found success in trying door-to-door selling. By 1995, he
opened a frame shop and gallery that primarily served Russian immigrant patrons, but was
frequently a target of vandalism. Jazz musician Leonid Ptashka encouraged Leonid, who was at
the time attempting to find his own artistic identity while being held down by the desires of his
customers, to paint famous jazz musicians, and inspiration that still appears in some of Leonids
works today (Leonid Afremov Bio).
Nearing the end of the biography, it talks about Leonids next big step in his life, moving
to the United States. Unlike his quick decision to move to Israel, Leonid spent months of careful
planning to ensure his success in the US, primarily by building up a collection of paintings in
Brooklyn to sell to galleries as soon as he arrived January 2002, a collection compromising of
over a hundred paintings. Though successful in terms of business in New York, the cold climate
caused health issues that led him to move himself and his family in 2002 to Fort Lauderdale.
Both in New York and Fort Lauderdale, he faced the frustration of limited expression as he had

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to cater his paintings to specific themes which the local galleries would buy (Leonid Afremov
Bio).
His biography continues as it follows the turning point of Leonid Afremovs career; his
introduction to EBay and online selling. Through the internet, Leonid found a wider audience
and thus the artistic freedom he was looking for. Gaining popularity not only in the art field, but
in the psychology field for the apparent calming effect his paintings had, Afremov had enough
money and support to move to Boca Raton and launch a personal webstore selling his paintings,
which is now run by his sons. In March of 2010, after multiple years of vacationing there, Leonid
Afremov retired to Playa del Carmen near Cancun, where his children run the management
section of his business while he spends his days painting and spending time at his personal ranch
(Leonid Afremov Bio)
Overcoming Discrimination and Finding Artistic Freedom
An inspiring part of Leonid Afremovs career as an artist is his determination.
Throughout the majority of his career, Leonid was faced with strong discrimination and
constriction on what he could and could not paint. As a Jewish artist in Russia, he was unable to
sell his art in normal galleries and faced other such discriminating factors (Leonid Afremov
Bio). By moving to Israel, he escaped anti-Semitism feelings, but merely traded it for being
discriminated about his birth country and a Russian immigrant. This limited his opportunities to
mainly doing business with other Russian immigrants, requiring him to tailor his art to the
demands of his customers in order to sustain his family (Leonid Afremov Bio).
What is so impressive about the discrimination Leonid faced was that he did not let it
discourage him from painting. Even though his shop was vandalized in Israel, or his paintings

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bought at ridiculously low prices and sold for a hefty markup merely because he was an
immigrant, Leonid did not stop painting (Leonid Afremov Bio). Instead, he used what little
time he had to experiment with new styles and find what he loved the most. As such, it makes his
online success that much sweeter, as he finally found the artistic freedom he was searching for.
Unbridled by the fear of not being able to sell enough paintings to provide for his family, Leonid
can now paint what he feels most compelled to do, which is quite appealing to artists and
pleasing to those who can see the emotion and expression he puts into his work.
Colorful Impressionism: Leonids Unique Art Style
Leonid Afremovs art style is unique in many different ways. When searching up the term
modern impressionism on the internet and looking at the related images, the majority of the
closest relating results are of Leonid Afremovs paintings. Heavily influenced by the
impressionism style, Leonid takes
the techniques and visual appeal
and combines it with vivid colors,
putting a modern twist on the
influential style.
Unlike most painters,
Leonids primary tool is the palette
knife, which gives his works the

Fig. 1.Downtown Lights 2. Leonid Afremov. Painting with palette knife

blocky, textured appearance it has (Leonid Afremov Bio). It also leads to attention to form and
less on small details, allowing viewers to focus on the feel of the subject and the interaction of
colors over that of realistic paintings. Furthermore, Leonid frequently combines nature and urban
settings together in the forms of parks, rain, and city settings. This creates yet another unique

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aspect that draws viewers attention as he seamlessly ties the two sides of life together into one
peaceful, pleasing painting.
Collage Experience:
Even before I knew the name of the artist, I fell in love with Leonid Afremovs art. Quite
some time ago I randomly stumbled across a painting of his on the Internet and was drawn to the
vibrant nature of Leonids art, striking as it were my particular color aesthetics. Pleased, but
busy, I made note of the painting in my mind but had forgotten how to locate it again. When this
collage project was first introduced, I was quite stumped as to what sort of artwork I was
interested in enough to create an inspired collage. Remembering my intrigue with the painting, I
spent some time to relocate the artist.
I chose to focus my collage on
Oakland Rain because of the
contrast between the bright blues and
cool tones of the sky against the warm
colors of the street lamps. This, along
with the natural form of the trees,
appealed to me the most.

Fig. 2. Oakland Rain. Leonid Afremov. Painting with palette knife

In creating my collage, I had multiple ideas at first in how I was to carry out the project.
At first, because the painting was primarily focused on color for me, I planned to use
construction paper to achieve consistent colors throughout the collage. I quickly decided against
that, and instead found pages of magazines with large areas of color to get the variety of shades I
felt necessary to be pleased with the piece. In doing so, I divided up the colors I cut out into sub

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groups and was careful to space out pieces of the same shade among the collage, in order to
achieve unity and color consistency across the entire piece.
In addition to careful color consideration, I planned out the order in which I completed
sections of the collage. I started with the middle strip of blue, as the sky, so that I could start
layering the collage. From there, I made sure to paste objects farther in the background before
object in the foreground, to get the overlapping sense of depth I was seeking. As such, the darker
reds of the light posts came before the oranges, after which came the yellows, then the posts
themselves with the white lights being placed last. Careful attention was put into the trees, were I
attempted to put branches in the foreground over those in the background, which was difficult in
some of the more complicated areas of the collage.
In all, the collage took much more time and consideration then I at first thought to plan,
but the attention to detail added depth and color variation into the collage, which to my view
improved it greatly from my beginning plans.
Conclusion
Leonid Afremov is an inspiring artist for his use of colorful impressionism, his
determination as an artist, and his success in an online art career. Through his vibrant colors he
calms and releases emotions, reflecting his own ability to finally freely express himself through
his art, and get rid of the artistic restraints that bound him for a large portion of his career.
Through my own intrigue with his paintings, I dedicated my collage to Oakland Rain and
payed careful attention to the details of the work. Not giving into discrimination and working to
find his own painting style, Leonid Afremov is an intriguing modern artist with great abilities
and success.

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Works Cited
Afremov, Leonid. Downtown Lights 2. Digital image. Fine Art America. N.p., 22 May 2015.
Web. 10 Jan. 2016. Fig. 1.
Afremov, Leonid. Oakland Rain. Digital image. Fine Art America. N.p., 13 June 2015. Web. 10
Jan. 2016. Fig. 2.
"Leonid Afremov Bio." Leonid Afremov Bio. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <https://afremov.com/LeonidAfremov-bio.html>.