by Laura Bernardeschi Nelson
Year 2026
Framed, varnished, and signed front and back
Oil pastels on paper
45 × 35 × 2 cm
“Violet Ground” is part of my ongoing exploration of emotional landscapes shaped more by memory and atmosphere than by direct observation. Executed in oil pastels on paper, the work combines layered gestures, softened structures, and luminous color fields to create an environment suspended between stillness and transformation.
The composition unfolds through long horizontal bands and diagonal movements that pull the viewer into a space of shifting depth and uncertain perspective. Violet and turquoise tones dominate the foreground, while darker vertical forms gather along the horizon like trees, barriers, or silent figures emerging from shadow. The landscape remains intentionally ambiguous, existing somewhere between natural terrain and psychological space.
At the center of the painting appears a solitary dark form that may suggest a cut tree, a vessel, or a symbolic marker embedded within the field. I was interested in creating a quiet focal point — something that anchors the composition emotionally without fully revealing its meaning. This small form interrupts the openness of the landscape and introduces a subtle sense of presence, memory, or ritual.
Color plays a central role in the work. Layers of violet, blue, green, and muted earth tones overlap and dissolve into one another, creating moments of tension between luminosity and darkness. The oil pastel medium allows for both density and fragility, preserving traces of movement, texture, and previous gestures beneath the final surface.
Rather than depicting a specific place, “Violet Ground” reflects an internal landscape — a space connected to silence, distance, recollection, and emotional transition. The painting invites slow observation, allowing forms and atmosphere to emerge gradually through texture and color.
The work is framed, varnished, and signed on both front and back, emphasising both its material presence and its intimate scale.
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more on www.saatchiart.com/lauraartist68
Exploring Memory Through Painting
by Laura Bernardeschi nelson
2026
Oil pastels on paper
45 × 35 × 2 cm
Framed, varnished, and signed front and back
“Where the Light Settles” continues my exploration of imagined landscapes suspended between memory, atmosphere, and emotional perception. Created in oil pastels on paper, the work develops through layered gestures and softened transitions of color, allowing the landscape to emerge gradually as a psychological rather than descriptive space.
The composition is structured around a horizontal division that separates the luminous sky from the quieter foreground below. A glowing area of pale yellow light appears at the center of the horizon, partially dissolving into surrounding tones of magenta, violet, green, and muted grey. This unstable light source becomes the emotional core of the work, suggesting distance, transformation, or the final trace of illumination before darkness.
The surrounding forms remain intentionally ambiguous. Mountain-like silhouettes, vertical structures, and atmospheric fields drift between recognition and abstraction, creating an environment that feels both intimate and unreachable. Rather than depicting a real place, the painting reflects an internal landscape shaped by memory, sensation, and shifting emotional states.
The foreground introduces cooler blue and turquoise tones layered with gestural marks that resemble grasses, reflections, or traces left by movement across water or earth. These lower textures create a subtle contrast with the softness of the sky, grounding the composition while preserving its dreamlike instability.
Color plays a central role throughout the work. The interaction between warm magentas and colder blue-green tones creates a fluctuating atmosphere where calmness and tension coexist. The oil pastel medium allows for density, transparency, and visible accumulation of gesture, preserving the physical process of making within the final image.
“Where the Light Settles” is less concerned with geography than with emotional presence. The painting exists in a suspended state between disappearance and emergence, inviting slow observation and intuitive interpretation. It reflects my ongoing interest in landscapes as spaces of memory, silence, and psychological transition rather than fixed physical locations.
The work is framed, varnished, and signed on both front and back.
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Exploring Vulnerability: Emotional Circuit in Oil Pastels
by Laura Bernardeschi Nelson
Emotional Circuit
Laura Bernardeschi Nelson ,2026
Oil pastels on paper
45 × 35 × 2 cm
Framed, varnished, and signed front and back
“Emotional Circuit” explores the relationship between vulnerability, tension, and psychological containment through an abstract symbolic language inspired by organic structures and emotional states. Created in oil pastels on paper, the work combines fluid linear movement with anatomical and mechanical suggestions, forming a suspended network that feels simultaneously fragile and restrained.
At the center of the composition, a soft cellular form appears enclosed within interconnected lines, cords, and looping structures that spread across the surface like nervous pathways, emotional signals, or systems of internal pressure. The image remains intentionally ambiguous, shifting between biological form, emotional diagram, and imagined organism.
The intense pink background amplifies the emotional atmosphere of the work, creating a sense of exposure, instability, and heightened sensation. In contrast, darker linear structures introduce tension and containment, suggesting attempts to control or organize emotional complexity. The composition moves between softness and restriction, intimacy and discomfort.
The oil pastel medium allows for direct gesture, visible texture, and layered mark-making, preserving both spontaneity and emotional immediacy within the surface. Rather than illustrating a narrative, the work operates through sensation and symbolic association, inviting the viewer to interpret the forms through their own emotional and psychological responses.
“Emotional Circuit” continues my ongoing exploration of psychological landscapes and symbolic structures where the body, memory, and emotional experience merge into abstract visual environments.
The work is framed, varnished, and signed on both front and back.
Thanks for reading
more on saatchiart.com/lauraartist68