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Kristin Sarstedt
SWEDEN
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"The wilderness of my childhood has never really left me."
Born in Gävle on the Swedish east coast in 1984, Kristin Sarstedt grew up with one foot in the cultivated world and the other in the wild. Much of her upbringing unfolded at the family residence of Sares in Hälsingland, surrounded by the deep forests and open wilderness of the region. From an early age, the landscape shaped not only her days but her imagination, becoming the ground from which her creative life would grow. That childhood immersion in nature planted something lasting, a sensitivity to the living world that would remain central to her identity as an artist for the rest of her life.
Black swan approaching | Lithograph | Signed & Numbered
$350
In the spring of 2020, Covid-19 unexpectedly took the world by storm. One can almost say it appeared like a black swan, as shown in this piece.
Close encounters with wildlife defined those formative years and continue to echo through her paintings today. Bears, foxes, and countless other creatures appeared as neighbours rather than novelties, teaching her to observe the natural world with patience and reverence. These meetings left a deep imprint, awakening the artistic and creative side of her character long before any formal training. The animals she knew as a child now return as recurring themes in her work, carriers of memory and meaning. Through them, she preserves a bond with the wilderness that first taught her how to see, feel, and respond to beauty.
Bat soup | Lithograph | Signed & Numbered
$200
A rumoured bowl of bat soup with global impact inspired this piece, here merged with the Swedish forest to portray how deeply the effects from Covid-19 have permeated every section of our society.
"Painting is where I return to feeling, after a day of logic."
Alongside her artistic sensibility, Sarstedt pursued a rigorous path in business and economics. She earned a Master of Science from the Stockholm School of Economics, one of the most respected institutions in her field, before broadening her education abroad. Further studies took her to Vienna and to Harvard Business School, sharpening an analytical mind that would soon carry her into the international arena. This academic foundation gave her discipline, structure, and a global outlook. Yet even as she mastered the language of commerce, another current ran quietly beneath the surface, one that would never allow the artist within her to fall silent for long.
Social distancing | Lithograph | Signed & Numbered
$250
As Covid-19 kept the world on pause, social distancing became the new normal. In this piece you will find classic Swedish birds like the great spotted woodpecker and the great tit, both with their face masks close by, when suddenly a bullfinch comes flying a bit too close surprising them.
Launching an international marketing career in 2010, Sarstedt entered a fast-moving professional world defined by strategy and ambition. Her work carried her across borders and into demanding roles, where the analytical rigour of her education found full expression. Success in this arena required a particular kind of focus, one shaped by logic, planning, and measurable results. She embraced it fully, building a career that spanned continents and cultures. Still, this professional life told only part of her story, for behind the strategist stood a painter whose need to create refused to be set aside, however busy the calendar or demanding the role.
A piece inspired by the travel restrictions brought by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Here you’ll see a pair of great crested grebes which are migratory birds. To the right a “flying prohibited” symbol etched in stone, indicating the Covid-19 effects are of a more permanent nature.
Staycation | Lithograph | Signed & Numbered
$350
"Coming home to Sweden felt like reuniting with the very source of everything I create in the studio."
"I have never felt any need to pick just one side of myself; the strategist and the dreamer both live in me, and each finds its way into my paintings, one bringing discipline and clarity, the other bringing wonder, memory, and the wild beauty of the forests I have loved since I was a child."
Fox and duck | Lithograph | Signed & Numbered
$350
The fox is attracted by the mallard and has just started to launch an attack in order to get hold of it.
Throughout her professional journey, her artistry served as an essential counterweight to her business mindset. Where commerce demanded precision and control, painting offered freedom, intuition, and release. The two pursuits existed in creative tension, each sharpening the other and keeping her whole. Art became the space where she could return to feeling, memory, and the natural world she loved, a private refuge from the structured demands of corporate life. This balance between the rational and the intuitive became a defining feature of who she is, revealing an artist who draws strength from contrast rather than seeking to resolve it away.
Hide and seek | Lithograph | Signed & Numbered
$350
The fox is focused and working to catch its next meal. Will it find the mouse under the snow?
Years spent living in Dublin and New York expanded her horizons without loosening her roots. In these vibrant international cities, far from the quiet forests of Hälsingland, the Swedish landscape remained a constant presence within her artwork. She carried her homeland with her, translating remembered wilderness onto canvas even while surrounded by urban energy. This portable sense of place became one of her defining traits as a painter, a way of holding onto identity across distance. The nature she had known as a child proved impossible to leave behind, following her from city to city as both anchor and inspiration.
The markets have crashed and the bears have taken over the world, accelerating the flooding originating from climate change.
A bear's world | Acrylic
$6 000
Returning to Sweden in 2016 marked a homecoming in more than a purely geographical sense. Back on familiar ground, she reconnected with the forests and wilderness that had shaped her earliest creative impulses. A significant amount of her spare time is now spent among the trees, walking, observing, and gathering the impressions that feed her painting. This return closed a long circle, bringing her back to the source of her inspiration after many years abroad. The wilderness that had always lived within her artwork could once again surround her in daily life, deepening the authenticity and immediacy of everything she now creates.
"Bears and foxes were my earliest teachers, and they still guide my hand."
Nature stands at the very heart of her artistic vision, functioning as subject, teacher, and sanctuary all at once. The forests, animals, and landscapes of Sweden are not merely depicted in her paintings; they are felt, remembered, and honoured. Her work reflects a lifelong dialogue with the wild, one shaped by genuine intimacy rather than distant admiration. This closeness lends her paintings an emotional truth that cannot be manufactured, only lived. For Sarstedt, to paint the natural world is to return to something essential about herself, a way of keeping faith with the child who first found wonder among bears and foxes.
Dominating | Acrylic
$6 000
It's checkmate by the bull. The bear left in rage once he realised he was defeated, and is long gone. This piece is foretelling an increased optimism of the market and a rising economy.
The duality that defines her life gives her artistry a distinctive character and depth. She is at once a strategist and a dreamer, an economist and a painter, equally at home with spreadsheets and brushes. Rather than treating these identities as opposites to be reconciled, she allows them to coexist and enrich one another. Her disciplined mind brings clarity and intention to her creative practice, while her artistic spirit softens and humanises her analytical side. This unusual combination produces work that feels both considered and deeply felt, the expression of a person who has refused to choose between the head and the heart.
The relaxed fox is strolling by the water, casually observing the great tit drinking, Time is not of essence...
Lost in time | Acrylic
$6 000
Today, Kristin Sarstedt is more active and productive in her artistic career than ever before. The years of balancing business and painting have culminated in a period of remarkable creative energy, rooted firmly in her return to the Swedish wilderness. Her journey, from a childhood among the forests of Hälsingland, through international study and a global career, and back to the landscapes that first inspired her, informs every canvas she now produces. Her art stands as a testament to the enduring power of place and the refusal to let creativity be silenced. In the forest she loves, she has found both her subject and herself.
Branch of fortune | Acrylic
$2 500
Sometimes money does grow on trees. When it does, who is better to collect the treasure than the magpie.
"Even in New York, the Swedish forest was always somewhere in my work."
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