LEILA BAKASHVILI

Originally born in the Republic of Georgia on December 5 1961, Leila studied to become a doctor of medicine at a local university in Tbilisi. She received her MD only to never practice medicine a day of her life, instead she devoted her life to art. In 1997 she moved to America with her two children and continued to pursue her art career here in the states. She began to participate in group shows all around New Hope, Lambertville, Peddlers Village and New York. Her paintings became increasingly popular over the next ten years, so much so that in December of 2007 Leila decided to open her own gallery in Lambertville. She put everything she had into the gallery in hopes that it would succeed, and it did, more then anyone could have imagined. She was the happiest she had ever been working at the gallery, surrounded by her own beautiful artwork. Her gallery gave her the freedom to do what she wanted, paint. She went to Paris in April of the next year and painted the city. Every painting sold within a week after her return. She visited Tuscany and painted there, and then she went to Venice to paint. Venice was the last place Leila painted. The day before she was to return she became very ill. The doctors in Venice could not figure out what was happening to her. When she returned home there was still no diagnosis. Weeks later she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, by then it was in its last stages. Leila passed away on August 27 2009. She left behind over 1000 paintings.