Cyrus Afsary

Known for lush still lifes, landscapes, and portraits in oil, he also works in watercolors and pastels. He began to get attention as an artist in the early 1980s as an artist who obviously loved the Southwest. In 1988, he won the Robert Lougheed Memorial at the National Academy of Western Art Exhibition, and he has also received recognition from the Pastel Society of America and the Northwest Rendezvous, both of which he is a member.

He was born and raised in the Middle East and enrolled in art classes at age fifteen and was trained in the style of the Russian masters and traditions of Ilya Repin and Valentin Serov. Soon after, he had portrait commissions. His parents died when he was young and did not live to see his success.