Fine Art Tuesday

Melody of the Night, Leonid Afremo, date unknown

Dang near forgot this. It’s too freaking busy this week.

Once again, we may be stretching the boundaries of the phrase “fine art”, but as I noted with the first post, I like what I like, and I am an absolute sucker for city scenes at night, rain or no rain. A few of the more memorable moments of my life have happened in those times, and when you’re a grumpy old fart like me, you like to look back fondly on such things.

And no, I’m not going into any of those stories. Use your imagination. It’s probably better than reality, anyway.

Leonid Afremo may be one of the modern masters of such things. Born in Belarus in 1955, he immigrated to Israel in 1990, then to Florida and lastly, Mexico. He died in 2019.

Being in the Soviet Union, his career started as a label designer for a beer factory. He also worked as a set designer and did free lance work. He practiced his art in his free time. I have to believe it was a difficult task.

Immigrating to Israel, his work was devalued by art galleries because he was a Russian immigrant and so, easy to take advantage of. His son began selling his paintings door-to-door, and this led to more money and recognition.

After his gallery was vandalized and destroyed, he moved to the US. More adept now at the business side of art, he painted subjects in demand by galleries at the time. He then discovered eBay and once more began selling directly to customers. He achieved some notice in the medical community who used his works in stress reduction settings.

In 2005 he again moved, this time to Mexico. He continued working and selling his art until his death in 2019.

I’d like to include this quote from his web site on his artistic philosophy:

Leonid Afremov keeps the majority of his art politically neutral. His paintings are not offensive to anyone nor send any hidden messages. The paintings usually reflect certain personal memories and emotions. Leonid Afremov tries to draw the viewer to have a certain feeling rather than tell a story via the painting, or have the viewer see the world how he sees it. The neutral attributes of Afremov’s art make the paintings appealing to almost any social, ethnic and age group. Leonid Afremov has been traveling quite extensively and has taken many photographs of different scenes that he later painted. Almost every painting he painted has a very personal inspiration. His art can be reflected as very positive through the bright colors he uses.

Leonid Afremov loves cats and other animals; he has had cats throughout his entire life. He has painted many paintings of cats, dogs, horses, tigers and even giraffes. The only political paintings he has are of bull-fighting , where he tries to show the viewer the cruel nature of the sport and discourage the viewers from liking bull-fighting.

No wonder I’m going to buy one of his works. 40″x30″-Mrs. Freeholder will probably have a fit.

Note: Fine Art Tuesday was started by Eaton Rapids Joe in memory of Ol’ Remus, late proprietor of  the Woodpile Report. If you’re a blogger and are so moved, please feel free to join us with your own Fine Art Tuesday post.