As a child, the painter Tove Mauritzson lived in the Swedish countryside outside Malmö before her family moved to a village on the coast. As an adult, she lived in big cities like Stockholm and Edinburgh, but when her art studies were completed it was to southern Sweden, with its memories of an idyllic and free childhood, that she returned. Eventually she settled into a large apartment in Svarta with the light and space she sought as an artist. The building is one of a series of austere and minimalist two-storey townhouses designed by the Danish architectural firm Vandkunsten, but inside Tove's home the mood is anything but severe, with its cheerful flea market finds, family heirlooms (including a stuffed owl that appears in a painting by Tove Mauritz's grandmother) and of course her brilliantly coloured art. Filling each room with colour and personality, her paintings also reflect her surroundings — the china dogs in the bedrooms appear in several of Tove's works, while a woven fabric with British equestrian motifs used on chairs around her home decorates lamp shades and furniture in painted form too. Animals also play a big part in her life — Tove's dogs Lulu and Signe keep her company when she paints (and serve as models, too). Now, as she awaits the birth of her first child, she continues to paint these themes but says that she now plans to paint people, too — Tove wants to do a family portrait when the baby is born. More here on mixr.se.
(photography by Sara Svenningsrud)