Swedish artist Benjamin Björklund lives a simple life in a farm house on Sweden’s west coast and his oil and watercolor paintings reflect this life. His work usually portrays the people and animals that surround him, such as his dog, Solomon, and other pets like rabbits, pigs, and mice. He’s also inspired by physical or emotional situations that he has experienced throughout his life; before becoming an artist, Björklund had a varied career working as a prison night guard, a psychiatric nurse, and a veterinary technician student. To look at Björklund’s paintings feels like looking into a dream. They have a mysterious quality, which he achieves with soft and impulsive strokes of the paint that appears impressionistic. Although his subjects are emotionally exposed, the mask of light or paint that obscures their faces makes them anonymous and unreachable. Björklund explains that his pieces border with a surreal world, “happy mistakes, being borne from spontaneous actions.”