Wanaria Wholeheart, born February 2nd, 1994 in Ingolstadt, Germany, is an artist and VFX Compositor based in the Swedish countryside near Stockholm. With an early passion for art beginning at the age of two, her work explores themes of human connection, nature, spirituality, and the contradictions within us. Wanaria values freedom and creativity, often choosing unconventional paths that reflect her need for autonomy and expression. Outside of her art, she enjoys meditation, yoga, gardening, cooking, and deep, meaningful conversations. Through her paintings, she invites viewers to question societal norms, reconnect with nature, and embrace the beauty in life’s quiet moments.
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Education
Wanaria completed her A-Levels at Gnadenthal Gymnasium in Ingolstadt, a high school known for its strong emphasis on the arts and music education. She went on to study Multimedia and Communication in Ansbach, Germany, where she expanded her artistic knowledge across various disciplines, including filmmaking, music production, and photography. As part of her studies, she spent a semester abroad at San Diego State University in California, where she immersed herself in an intensive six-month program focused on painting and life drawing, further refining her technical and creative skills. In 2016, she earned second place in the Young Artist Support Contest (Jugendförderpreis für Bildende Kunst) in Ansbach.
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After graduating, Wanaria pursued a career as a VFX Compositing Artist, eventually joining Important Looking Pirates—one of the industry’s leading studios based in Stockholm. Her visual effects work contributed to high-profile productions such as The Mandalorian, Stranger Things, and Avatar: The Last Airbender. In 2023, she founded her own company, WholeheART AB, with the mission of creating high-quality artworks that inspire and empower others. At the same time, she enrolled in the Mastery Program at the Milan Art Institute, where she continues to deepen her artistic practice and gain valuable insights into the art world and creative entrepreneurship.
Inspiration
Wanaria Wholeheart paints the relationship between us humans and the environment we live in.
Capturing shades of harmony and tension as means of a gentle rebellion against the various forms of dehumanization that drag on us. Her work is an opposition against the rushed, pragmatic pace of modern life, calling us back to presence, to stillness, to the sacred in the ordinary. Her art is grounded in themes of mental health, spiritual awakening, and the cycles of death and rebirth. It reflects on our complex relationship with nature—how we damage it, how we might restore it, and how its rhythms echo those within us. She explores the friction between the self and society, the union of opposites within us by questioning capitalism and consumerism. By taking from the hidden wisdom in native traditions, gardening, meditation, and community, she opens space for beauty, reflection, and potential. Wanaria’s paintings are not only an aesthetic experience but an invitation to live more harmoniously—with ourselves, with each other, and with the Earth.​​​​​​​​​
Techniques
Wanaria Wholeheart’s technique is as layered and intuitive as the themes she explores. Working with a rich variety of materials—acrylics, collage, pastels, coal, spray paint, inks, gold leaf, markers, and oil paint—she builds her pieces through a process that balances spontaneity with intention. Each medium brings its own energy: the raw earthiness of coal, the ephemeral softness of pastels, the luminous shimmer of gold leaf. She works in layers, allowing earlier marks to peek through the surface, creating a visual echo of memory and transformation. Her mixed-media approach reflects her philosophy of embracing contrast—chaos and order, rawness and refinement—inviting the viewer into a space where technique becomes a spiritual practice and the act of creation mirrors the complexity of inner life.
Process
Wanaria Wholeheart’s painting process is an alchemical journey that bridges the digital and the tactile, the intuitive and the intentional. Each piece begins with the creation of a visual source—an imaginative blend of photography, digital painting, image bashing, and AI-supported exploration—serving as a loose map rather than a fixed plan. From there, she dives in spontaneously and expressively, layering hidden messages, quick sketches, and fluid acrylic washes that form the emotional undercurrent of the work. She blocks in darks and shadows to ground the composition, then enhances the narrative with carefully selected collage elements—some thematically aligned, others deliberately contradictory to spark deeper reflection. Gold leaf is added to illuminate symbolic moments, creating pockets of sacredness. The painting evolves through layers of acrylics, markers, spray paint, and pastels, where abstract forms begin to surface, disrupting the familiar and inviting new depth. Finally, a thin layer of oil paint unifies the image, enriching the textures and tones, before the piece is sealed with varnish—preserving not just a painting, but an unfolding story of transformation.