The Purse Strings 

Sarah Joncas's painting presents a figure reclining on a chaise lounge. A muted palette of pink, blue, and red creates an atmosphere that is both dreamy and melancholic, a feeling reinforced by the subject’s distant gaze. The composition is carefully structured, with the subject's body forming a diagonal line across the canvas. This arrangement draws our eye from the red handbag in the lower-left to the scattering of butterflies and ghostly branches towards the upper-right. Notice how these botanical forms mirror the shape of the woman, suggesting a connection between inner experience and the external world. Joncas destabilizes any fixed understanding of beauty. Her use of light and shadow gives depth to the figure, while the cool color scheme challenges conventional notions of glamour, asking us to reconsider the established meanings of luxury and femininity.