“I think about images that resist, that attempt to retain their secrets or maintain their composure, that put you to work,” explains the rising American painter Jennifer Packer. Her expressionistic interior studies, still lifes and portraits, which typically depict her family members or friends, are purposefully enigmatic. She frequently limits her colour palette, keeping her brushstrokes loose, so that her subjects blend in with their background. In her portraiture (as evidenced here), the result is as intriguing as it is compelling, offset against the relaxed intimacy at play between artist and sitter.
