Maria C.Bernhardsson

Maria C. Bernhardsson is a colorful artist who lives and paints in Sweden. Most of her works are influenced by the architecture and geometry of houses. Bernhardsson travels the world photographing and sketching houses to use as inspiration for her canvas and paper artworks. Within her artworks, Bernhardsson plays with the colors and shadows of individual houses in conjunction with the overall feeling of gazing at a collection of these buildings. She then adds playful details such as flowers and animals to make the houses feel more like homes.

Even with her focus on bold colors and combinations, all of her artworks convey a level of warmth, comfort and familiarity. The abstract layering of the subjects within her artworks create the ambiguity which leads to the nearly universal familiarity.

Bernhardsson often paints in strong colors, in many nuances and a lot of layers. She describes it like this: “The colorway is very important to me when I paint. I love to combine as many colors as possible at the same time. Contrasts, strong colors/ bright pastels, plain/structured, dark/bright in a cubistic, skewed, dreamy and naive way.”