How unique paintings of Ukrainian immigrant conquered New York

The priest from Odessa, who 20 years ago moved to New York, conquered the United States with his vivid leather paintings. Today his works are exhibited in galleries in Manhattan, and the path that led him to this is thorny and winding. Writes about it UATV.

Anton Andreev, a priest from the Ukrainian city of Odessa, who moved to New York 20 years ago, could not distinguish between natural and artificial leather two years ago, and today he creates masterpieces from it - unique paintings on which bright poppies and sunflowers, depicted on most of his works.

At first, I used old jackets for the background of the paintings, later bags, purses and even sofas were used - all that can be made from poppies, sunflowers and some other flowers.

The master signs his paintings as Tony Bless, which means “Tony the Blessed”. The artist creates paintings in his free time from sermons. He serves in the spiritual center of New York.

In search of material for paintings, the artist helps the artist.

“As soon as she finds out about sales in local clothing stores, she immediately goes shopping,” the artist said. Also friends call who know that he makes pictures of leather.

Military, priest, artist

Anton Andreev was born in Odessa on February 2, 1958 in the family of a naval officer. He successfully graduated from the Nakhimov School in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), then the Higher Naval Diving School.

The man devoted 13 years to the army. Being in the rank of captain-lieutenant of the Navy, he became the commander of a unit for the maintenance of ships moored for repairs, the newspaper writes. WorlRusNews.

For these purposes, almost 100 liters of alcohol were released monthly, and Andreev became addicted to drinking. Realizing the problem, the future artist left the military service and began to manufacture furniture.

However, it was not possible to get rid of the addiction. The officer’s repeated attempts to resist the disaster with the help of doctors and even psychics did not give a positive result.

Dramatic changes

In 1996, Andreyev’s life underwent significant changes - he emigrated to the United States, to Philadelphia (Pennsylvania). And there he continued the struggle with his addiction.

Anton's friend, wanting to help him cope with addiction, invited him to serve in the evangelical church. It worked. A sharp turn in fate led Andreev to graduate from the school of pastors. After some time, he was ordained a priest.

And in 2013, he moved with his family to New York and began to serve in a prayer house in Brighton. Now he himself is helping people overcome their addiction to alcohol and drugs.

Becoming an artist

On duty, Andreev meets people of various professions: builders and musicians, artists and tailors.

Once he saw leather artworks.

He really wanted to do something similar himself. Having received trial lessons, which, of course, were not enough for him, he turned to the Internet for help. And gradually he mastered the technique on his own.

Now he creates voluminous, surprisingly beautiful paintings and panels: “Poppies”, “Roses”, “Sunflowers”.

In addition, he creates original brooches in the form of flowers, which are in constant demand among local fashionistas.

The works of the Ukrainian artist are exhibited in galleries in Manhattan. But the master’s main dream is to come to Ukraine with an exhibition.