Born in Europe and now based in Powell River, British Columbia, Canada,  Sonja Kobrehel is a painter whose richly textured abstractions explore memory, emotion, and the quiet archaeology of everyday life. Working on paper and canvas, she layers collage, acrylic, drawing, into atmospheric surfaces that feel both weathered and luminous.

Guided by intuition rather than strict plans, Kobrehel begins most works with a simple idea that gradually evolves into complex compositions where color is the central protagonist. Muted, timeworn tones are interrupted by flashes of saturated reds, blues, and yellows, creating a rhythm between serenity and tension. 

A recurring visual language of symbols appears throughout her paintings like personal artifacts or clues. These motifs suggest stories without illustrating them, allowing viewers to find their own narratives inside her layered worlds. Travel, human culture, and traces of the past all feed her imagination; each work becomes a site where lived experience, memory, and observation are translated into a poetic, visual code.

Kobrehel’s practice reflects a lifelong curiosity about how inner and outer worlds overlap. Her paintings do not offer linear explanations; instead, they open a space for contemplation, where color, texture, and symbol meet in a quiet but insistent visual dialogue.