Pia Erlandsson

Swedish artist Pia Erlandsson works through watercolors to focus on the minute expressions of her subjects. Her fascination with human emotions is evident throughout her ethereal oeuvre. By placing her figures in a non-descript background, she can do away with time and place and bring to life a multitude of individual responses. Not all of her subjects are alone, but there exists an element of solitary melancholy in her portrait-like paintings. Though the physiognomy is not identifiable - no particular person is revealed - the emotional states are palpable. Erlandsson delights in communicating states of mind, which she achieves via expert use of light and shadow, as well as colors and forms. Though figurative, her paintings remain somewhat abstract, which serves the artist's purpose of rendering her images universal.
 
Pia Erlandsson has been a professional artist since 2007, though she has been painting for decades. Her devotion to her work is evident in the expertly executed details through which she succeeds in bringing tension and harmony simultaneously to her works.