During the early 1990s, Leonid Afremov was mainly working with watercolors and acrylic. He was experimenting very little with usage of the palette knife. He was painting what people were buying, with very little artistic freedom. In 1993, the Afremov family bought an apartment in Ashdod because it was a city of mainly Russian immigrants. Leonid Afremov hoped to avoid constant insults and discrimination by moving to a place where mainly Russians live. However, the city was primarily residential, without many opportunities, and Afremov had no choice but to keep dealing with the locals from the Tel Aviv area.