Colorful Palette Knife Paintings

Leonid Afremov is a Russian–Israeli modern impressionistic artist who works mainly with a palette knife and oils. Using his unique knife painting technique and unmistakable style Afremov creates paintings that seems to explode in a millions of bright colors. Afremov is one of the very few self-representing artist who promotes and sells his work exclusively over the internet with very little exhibitions and involvement of dealers and galleries.

Before the advancement of online sales and eBay, Afremov was a struggling artist. During the early 1990s, Leonid Afremov was mainly working with watercolors and acrylic. He was painting what people were buying, with very little artistic freedom. In 1994, out of extreme desperation, his 16-year-old son Dmitry tried to sell Leonid’s paintings door to door around the neighborhood. This practice proved itself very effective, and Afremov suddenly started selling many pieces he painted and was also getting better money than from selling directly to galleries. Dmitry proved himself to be a good door-to-door salesman. Within a year, Leonid acquired enough funds to open his own gallery and frame shop in Ashdod.

In 2004, Leonid’s son Boris was introduced to eBay by his friends. They tried to sell a couple of paintings by auction and immediately received positive approval. Paintings were sold for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars and everything sold without exception. For the first time Afremov was given the opportunity to paint what he really wanted. At this point the real artistic journey began. He began painting what he really wanted from his personal inspirations and finally was able to explore his artistic vision and abilities all the way.

The exposure on eBay gave him opportunities for commission orders and access to different galleries. However, because of negative experiences with galleries, Leonid preferred to sell directly to the collector. Thanks to the internet exposure, Afremov participated in various local TV shows around the USA. His art was declared very relaxing and calm by notable psychologists and psychiatrists who make use of his painting in various psychological and psychiatric therapy procedures. Afremov’s paintings were published not only in art magazines but also in various medical and health magazines as examples of stress reducing paintings.

Afremov currently resides in the popular resort town Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico, near Cancun.