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 works. She 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
in her paintings create the ambiguity which leads to the nearly universal
familiarity.

Bernhardsson
often paints in strong colors and a lot of layers. She states of her process,
“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."