Artist Jocelyn Hobbie creates portraits of women that are completely mesmerizing as they absorb the viewer in their hypnotic layers of patterns. It is not just that artist’s liberal use of vivid colours, striking contrast of light and shadow, or her subjects’ incredibly stunning features that makes her work so visually compelling. Each of the women in her paintings have a distinct look on their face; a look that you cannot quite put your finger on, that is familiar and distant at the same time. They do not seem engaged with their surroundings; they do not appear to be looking at anything around them, including the viewer. It is as if they are in a world of their own, lost in their own thoughts. A feeling of intensity is visible on each woman’s face; one of deep psychological distress that compels the viewer to search deeper into the mystery that is the cloud of detachment that looms over them.

Hobbie’s bold use of intricate patterns manipulate the space in her compositions, creating a flatness that heightens the realistic, three-dimensional bodies of her subjects. Even their clothing features patterns that often clash with the background, forming an interesting visual tension. This brilliant combination of colour and shape is one of the many elements of Hobbie’s work that makes her paintings so extraordinary.