Jonel Scholtz

South African painter Jonel Scholtz creates domestic scenes in hues conveying intensely subjective and evocative interior spaces. Living with her husband and daughter on a farm in the North West region of South Africa where she was raised, Scholtz’s paintings transmit the region’s warm light. Her works – dominated by reds, browns and yellows – depict intimate rooms and worn furnishings that seem to emerge from some eternal dream of rural tranquility.

Scholtz’s warm interior scenes always include a frame of some sort, often doors and windows, occasionally picture frames. This recurring theme calls attention to rites of passage and socialization (many paintings include young children) and the gendered organization of space – the homes in Scholtz’s works are distinctly feminine, with women and young girls often gazing out windows and through doorways. These visual cues also draw our eye to light, as it passes across thresholds and over surfaces, casting an inviting glow. While clearly figurative, Scholtz’s paintings’ expressive qualities evoke the safety and comfort of the ideal home in our collective imagination.