Sandra Blomén Maschinsky

In a quirky style, Swedish artist and illustrator Sandra Blomén Maschinsky creates line art of weird-looking characters and abstract objects. Sandra is based in the beautiful harbor town of Gothenburg, where she grew up.

What inspires her is not necessarily the beauty of everyday life, but rather the slightly off or simply very ordinary daily situations. “I find ‘ugly’ illustrations really fun to make. I have been doing a lot of these funny and quirky drawings lately of happy women and day-to-day things,” she explains.

One motif and general source of inspiration that is recurring in Sandra’s creative process is women and the female body. “The female perspective, body image, and self-recognition are something that inspires me a lot this spring,” she shares.

Working with colours

Although her style is quirky it is also quite minimalistic in its expression. Sandra laughingly admits to having a complicated relationship with colours: “I constantly work on it. I absolutely love a nice colour combination but I find them hard to create. I often end up using the same kind of very light green as a background, as I never get tired of it,” she says. And when she does use colours in her pieces, it is always in abundance.

In that regard, her art is rarely ‘in-between’. Instead, her pieces are created out of instant moments of inspiration: “I usually don’t overthink my artworks,” Sandra says and continues: “I like to create spontaneously and like the expression that comes from that in that specific moment. Now and then I sketch first, contemplate, and plan ahead, but it’s rare.”