Maria Picassó i Piquer is a Catalan artist living in Barcelona. Her illustrations meld sharp angles and precise lines into a humanistic whole, betraying her original training as an architect. 

Picking up the quarantine thread of December’s illustrator, Margherita Paoletti, who showed nature a step removed from us by our pandemic circumstance, Picassó i Piquer presents five cityscapes tucked safely behind a barrier of glass. Her scenes remind us of the cozy joys of nesting—from her arrangement of plants to the recurring motif of a cat window-shopping for birds.

Picassó i Piquer expertly reduces each animal, plant, and home to the barest minimum without losing an ounce of joy or life. See how the recurring element of thin parallel lines turn from window louvers in one image into a fence in another and finally into a suggestion of shadow at the top of a window. For extra credit, we encourage you to get out a ruler and hunt for a signature Picassó i Piquer move—parallel lines at a 30-degree angle.