Wandering in the trance of creation with Camilla Engström

Camilla Engström is a Stockholm-born Swedish artist, currently based in Los Angeles. Praised as " feminist and prolific", Camilla is talented in combining vibrant landscapes into oil paintings and presenting an imaginative sense of motherhood and softness.

Looking back, life was like a puzzle and only unfolded after a few years of exploration.

After graduating from Parsons School of Design, Camilla worked as a freelance fashion assistant in New York. Moments of frustration and confusion accumulated to her decision of following her inner voice and leaving the fashion world behind.

So far, Camilla is most famous for the creation of ‘Husa’ (housemaid in Swedish), a voluptuous female figure who often forgoes clothings and lazes in the mother nature, rebelling against female beauty standards. Her bright scenes often offers an invigorating riff on the millennial concern, from body shaming to self awareness.

“I make landscapes using my imagination. I paint what I feel rather than what I actually see.”

- Camilla Engström

Influenced by abstract and modern art, she creates work that transcends the surface and reflects her spiritual beliefs.

What sparks your imagination?
- Whatever comes up when I close my eyes. I try to spend as much time in nature as possible to reach a more calm state. I feel like the landscapes I paint I've seen many lifetimes ago.

Do you have a favorite genre or artist? Would you say that they influence your work somehow?
- I like work that touches a higher realm. Artists like Hilma Af Klint, Georgia O'Keeffe, Agnes Martin, Agnes Pelton, etc. are artists that inspire me and help me tap into deeper layers of myself.

Camilla is calm and centered when creating, losing track of the physical surroundings and wandering within, "almost trancelike" as she describes it.

Through your work, what is the most essential aspect that you wish to share or debate? Is there any educational significance behind it?
- I want my work to feel like a soft landing. For the viewer to exhale and relax. I want my work to be a calming presence, to evoke self love and release love for others, the planet, plants, the animals and everything that lives here. With so much despair going on right now we have to stay strong and hopeful because without hope there's no action and with no action, everything falls apart.

What does the word "Transparent" mean to you, , and how did you find the experience of unboxing your speaker?
- Open, honest and vulnerable from a place of love. It was scary to unbox because it's such a beautiful object and I didn't want to drop it or get paint on it. My studio is really messy, that's why.