Jocelyn Hobbie’s portraits are a riot of color and pattern — loud, explosive, fun. And yet, as charged and attention-grabbing as they are, her works are quietly introspective, too. The subjects — all women — never confront you; they never glance back. Hobbie shifts their gaze, some just ever so slightly, so you’re squarely a voyeur and they’re lost in a world of their own. We get to know the artist here.
The art bug first bit when…
As a kid, I was in my room drawing and making stuff. My life hasn’t changed much since age seven.
My signature style…
I’m a figurative painter, but I’m also focused on inventing patterns and a color story that will create a dynamic interplay, a sort of disruptive harmony.
And how I came to it…
I didn’t start out with a premeditated or overarching theme, but over the years a unity has emerged in my particular visual language.
Favorite subjects to paint…
The foundation is the figure, but then my interests veer over to color and pattern. I sink my teeth into the details, which sort of explode out and become the picture.
My preferred medium/tools…
Oil paint.
In addition to the myriad of historical and contemporary artists that I love, I also draw inspiration from things like textiles, nature, tile and visual culture like fashion.
Favorite room in a museum…
Lately I’ve been loving the Japanese rooms at the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s the sheer beauty and exquisiteness of the things in there. I derive a lot of pleasure from that. It’s a goal of mine to generate that kind of a feeling: beauty and pleasure.
When I get the artist equivalent of writer’s block…
For me, the best thing is to keep working, literally on anything.
A good work of art should always…
Speak in that unsayable language that only art can.
