In the country

All his art comes from childhood, from the village of Bobylevo, where he lived with his grandmother Maria Yegorovna before the army. Simple country life ...
Leonid Baranov was born in the Kurgan region in 1955 into a family that loves painting. By the way, his mother started painting at the age of 80.
Dad is an accountant, he dreamed that his son would continue his path. Leonid graduated from an industrial technical school, worked in Chukotka, served in the army, went to work at a factory, but after learning that he had a heart defect (later the diagnosis was not confirmed), he decided to leave the factory and entered the Shadr Sverdlovsk Art School at the age of 24.
He graduated from college with a degree in painter-teacher. At the school, he was fond of the work of Borges with his mythological characters. Nothing seemed to portend a transition to rural landscapes and portraits.
His famous cycle “Once upon a time there were a grandfather and a woman” began with a picture in which an old woman ate a jail. This painting found a buyer instantly.
Leonid recalled his native village, his children's paradise, when he was surrounded by open and simple people, when his beloved grandmother was nearby, who pampered her grandchildren ... Memories began to come to life in the paintings ...
Why are his paintings so popular? Why do the faces of people at Baranov's exhibitions brighten and grow kinder? Probably because we see happiness. It is such a rarity when the old people in the pictures are smiling, serene and bright ... The soul of these old people is wide open, they are naive and simple, and, most importantly, they warm us with their love. Maybe that's why they are so attractive?