Mårten Andersson was born in 1934 in Freluga, just outside Bollnäs in Hälsingland. His father was a freedom-seeking soul who made a living as a carpenter, plank painter, and decorator. He often depicted moose in marshes and sunsets, but since the moose were difficult to capture, his son had to step in early to help. At Söräng school, the teachers discovered Mårten's talent and ensured he could attend a painting course with the Bollnäs artists Per Englund and Fritiof Strandberg. At the age of 18, he moved to Stockholm and enrolled in the Konstfack school of art, , where he stayed for two years. During the summers, he worked with Jerk Werkmäster in Rättvik, an important mentor who guided him towards serious painting.

Together with his friend Lennart Jirlow, Mårten then travelled to Italy and enrolled at the Free Academy in Florence. In Tuscany, he encountered the entire history of Western art and realised that the Hälsingland provincialism, the legacy of the decorative painters, Lim-Johan and Haaken Gulleson, was Sweden's answer to the Italians' Botticelli and Donatello. Italy became a pivotal experience that followed him back to Hälsingland. Once back in Freluga, he found that his world of motifs could be excellently combined with the Italian heritage.

Mårten Andersson's art is characterised by narratives where each painting carries its own story. He plays with interpretations and perspectives that leave the viewer perplexed, while the mystique and the ritual interplay between humanity and nature are ever-present. His colour palette is built on strong reds, blues, and yellows, where even existential solitude glimmers behind the vibrancy of the colours. The boundary between the world of fairy tales and reality is often blurred, and in his motifs, both romantic sweetness and dreamlike surrealism coexist.

Although influences from colourists such as Bror Hjorth, Sven Erixson, and Vera Nilsson can be traced, Mårten Andersson has forged his own path. Like Bror Hjorth, he frequently returns to motifs of dance, music, and above all, his homeland. He understood early on that it was the Hälsingland folk art, the people, and the tales in his vicinity that were his primary sources of inspiration and that simultaneously held something universal and exotic.