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, layers, and combinations, all of her artworks convey a level of warmth, comfort, and familiarity. The abstract layering of the subjects in her paintings creates an ambiguity that leads to nearly universal familiarity. Bernhardsson 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.”