THE BEAUTY OF NOTICING – With Sonia Morales
I came across Sonia's profile a few months ago and I remember scrolling through her social media from top to bottom, soaking in the visual quality of her work. I was surprised that, even through a screen, she was able to convey so much, and that's when I knew I had to invite her to tell us a bit about how this project called "Leftover Beauties" was born.
Sonia is a Spanish visual artist and painter whose practice centers mainly on contemporary still lifes made in oil. Her work starts from objects and scenes that are seemingly insignificant in everyday life depending on who's looking; clothes, books, makeup, personal objects, food, etc. and turns them into images built with extreme attention to detail and full of intimacy.
She studied Fashion Design and Management in Madrid, worked in styling, and spent around three and a half years on Pepe Jeans' image team. Alongside that, she had been painting privately for years, until she finally decided to leave her professional career in fashion to dedicate herself to painting full time.
I was especially excited to find out how her project Leftover Beauties came to be and to really understand what led Sonia to work on developing it:
"it came from the need to create a universe that would represent my way of understanding aesthetics and the world around me. It's a look into my intimate universe, built from everyday objects that, for some reason, have stayed with me over the years, alongside pieces tied to the world of fashion, which is my other passion. The series came together last year, although the project actually started long before I was even aware of it.
For years I've been keeping small objects that caught my attention, whether for their appearance or for the story behind them, knowing that one day I'd find a way to give them meaning."
But what makes an everyday object deserve to be painted?
"I think any object deserves it. These objects are with us day to day and, even if they don't hold much material value, they're the ones that trigger our memory and stir up nostalgia. They also speak about us in an honest, singular way. Personally, a lot of my memories are tied to this kind of object. They're able to transport me to specific moments, people, or feelings. Painting them is a way of stopping time and reclaiming the beauty in the simplest things."
Talking with Sonia about this, I couldn't help asking her whether finding beauty in the small things around us has always been part of who she is, or whether she really had to train herself to know where to look.
"I think it's both. On one hand, I feel like the curiosity for the objects around me has always existed in me. As I said before, my 'obsession' with collecting and keeping these little treasures goes back years. I've always been drawn to things that other people might have overlooked. On the other hand, that curiosity has also been shaped and transformed over time. Over the years I've learned to observe in a more critical way and to see the potential in things. Even so, I know that the way I look at things will keep evolving and changing along with me. It's a constant exercise."
Learning about the creative process of an artist who defines her work through attention to detail and does so by hand, at a time when AI increasingly dominates the market for fast, instant visual creation, adds, in my view, an unmatched kind of value to her work right now. So I wanted to know: how does a piece begin?
"The pieces in Leftover Beauties began the moment I started collecting objects that caught my attention. When I decided to turn the idea into something real and create the series, I also made a selection of other objects that, both aesthetically and symbolically, contrasted with everyday life but still felt part of my universe. Some were my own, others borrowed. I gathered bags, shoes, jewelry... pieces I found interesting. Then I started building the compositions you can see in the paintings today, playing with shapes, textures, colors, and materials until I found the perfect scene."
Sonia explains that she wants her work to stir up a memory, an emotion, or a feeling of nostalgia in the viewer, something they can recognize in their own intimacy. Beyond that, she was also looking to connect with everyday life from another angle, for people to appreciate the beauty in what surrounds them, from what they carry in their pockets to what sits on their nightstand. This series is an invitation to slow down and pause. To step into the works and take in the details, and bring back a slower rhythm to how we usually consume images.
"Ultimately, I'd like Leftover Beauties to speak not only about the objects that appear in the paintings, but also about the relationship we build with the things around us. For someone to go back home after seeing the series and look differently at what had always been there."
And I don't know if you're as curious as I am, but I couldn't skip asking which piece has the most special story:
"My favorite painting, without a doubt, is Composition 09. I think it's beautiful in its simplicity, and it reminds me of one of the first paintings that made me start seeing painting as a real path for me.
On one hand, I'm interested in the objects as isolated pieces. The Vaseline and the comb connect me to my childhood and bring up a feeling of tenderness, while the bag belongs to one of my best friends and is one of those pieces that's always on my wishlist.
I think it's a work that really represents the universe of Leftover Beauties well: beauty in the everyday, the emotional bond with objects, and, at the same time, the simple aesthetic and visual pleasure."
To wrap up, Sonia points out that what stands out most for her is having made peace with slowness and with her own pace. She admits it's hard to manage the pressure to constantly produce little things and the pace the digital world demands, but painting works differently. It's about dedicating hours to a single piece, and that reminds her that there are other ways of relating to images and to time — that sometimes they only make sense once you've given them the patience they need, and that's the greatest gift this series has to offer.
Sonia and I share the same desire to keep creating for the sake of what's beautiful, emotional, and powerful behind the detail, the care, and the intimacy. If this is something you relate to, you already know where to find us.
