Leonid Afremov’s “Rainy Etude” giclée
My visit to Europe and the countless art museums I speed-walked through must have had an impact because ever since I returned, I’ve been itching to get some artwork to hang in my apartment. I was first introduced to Leonid Afremov‘s paintings while looking for desktop wallpaper, of all things. I immediately fell in love with “Rainy Etude” and discovered Afremov’s website while looking up more information about the painting.
Afremov auctions off over a dozen giclées each day on his site. Giclée is a printing technique to make reproductions of original fine art. It is supposedly the highest quality method of making prints, and many of the reproductions found in art museums are created this way. Afremov’s giclée auctions routinely close below $50, which is a very appealing price. I’ve been monitoring his site daily for the past several weeks, not expecting to see my favorite Afremov painting show up, but waiting for a similar piece that resonated with me (he has a distinctive style and many of his paintings look similar).
So imagine my delight when the one and only “Rainy Etude” showed up for auction one day!
I stalked that auction and pounced with a minute left to go. My very own Afremov giclée… for $25!
Of course, add in shipping and pre-stretched canvas and the final price was double that. I received the print today and am very pleased with it. The giclée was first printed on cotton canvas, and then Afremov added some additional brush strokes to “embellish” and individualize the print. He only produces 25 prints of each painting but each one is different for this reason. Here’s a close-up of the added paint on top of the canvas:
I love the idea and it gives dimension to the print. It actually looks like a genuine painting unless I’m standing nose to nose with it. My only wish is for more of these additional brush strokes to be added. Less than 10% of the canvas surface was painted over.
The prints look amazing and are quite cheap so I’m planning on winning one or two more. Out with the movie posters, time to class up my apartment!
