“Seize The Day” Rendition by Sarah Joncas

Near the beginning of April Sarah sent out an email announcing that she would be having a Studio Sale of some pieces that she had worked on during her Maternity leave back in 2023. In the email she previewed the pieces that were going to be available and one immediately caught my eye. The launch date for the sale was on the 11th which was 4 days away and I was so pumped to try to get that beauty. Well Sarah’s plans changed when Etsy decided that they were going to suspend her account for some unknown reason on the 10th just one day before the sale was supposed to happen. She sent another email to the newsletter subscribers breaking the bad news and detailing the situation. She had been selling a bunch of AP prints as a prelaunch for the studio sale so maybe an influx in sales had triggered the shutdown. Whatever the case she now had a bunch of prints sold and she was unsure if she was even going to get the money from those sales. Of course she still planned on sending those prints to the buyers so I decided to email about purchasing the piece since I thought she may need a little extra help with those print sales. I didn’t actually think she would sale but I gave it a go. Needless to say she declined since she didn’t think it would be fair to the others that had seen the preview. Well she decided to set up a bigcartel store and rescheduled the sale for the 23rd. A little wait since the first announcement but I really wanted that piece.

The day of the sale finally arrived and I sat refreshing the page for the hour before it was supposed to launch just in case it accidentally posted them a little early. I did not want to miss her after waiting this long. At the time of the drop I had all of the pertinent information all ready to go. When the piece went live I quickly added it to my cart and was finished purchasing her within a matter of seconds. Needless to say I felt a wave of relief and pure euphoria as I got ready to go out and mow the grass. When I came in later that afternoon I had an email from Sarah thanking me for my purchase and telling me she would have her on the way just as soon as she varnished the piece and let it dry. When she arrived I was a little shocked at how much pinker the piece was in person. From the images she shared the piece was more of a natural wood grain background with a white painted border framing it. The only thing that could have caused this dramatic change in the piece would have been that coat of varnish she added because I highly doubt she would have edited the image that much when offering it for sale. For some reason that varnish must have reacted with the wood panel and changed the look of the piece entirely. Irregardless of this change it is still a beautiful piece but not at all what I was expecting to find when I opened the box.

This stunning piece is a rendition Sarah created of a black and white piece of the same name that she had created for her solo show Upon Another Shore at Thinkspace Gallery in July of 2023. They are both gorgeous pieces but there is just something so beautiful about a piece on a wood panel showing off the lovely wood grain in the background. When I saw this piece my heart skipped a beat. That’s how I always know I have to pick up a piece. When I immediately fall in love with it and I know I’ll try my hardest to add it to my collection. It had been quite a while since I had added one of Sarah’s gorgeous pieces but it was definitely time. I absolutely love this style of painting from Sarah. There is just something so beautiful about the simplicity of the line work with those pops of solid color that really set the piece off. Of course the portrait is so breathtaking. Love her freckles and that intense gaze. Another phenomenal piece by this always incredible artist. So happy to have her in my collection.

Size 12” x 16” on wood panel