Petrina Hicks, ‘Lauren’ (from Beautiful Creatures series), 2011. Lightjet print.

Petrina Hicks, ‘Lauren with Fruit’ (from Beautiful Creatures series), 2011. Lightjet print.

Petrina Hicks, ‘Comfort’ (from Beautiful Creatures series), 2011. Lightjet print.

Petrina Hicks, ‘Emily the Strange’ (from Beautiful Creatures series), 2011.

Petrina Hicks, ‘Shenae and Jade’, 2005. Lightjet print.

Petrina Hicks, ‘Infinity’ (from Beautiful Creatures series), 2011.

I adore the sensuous yet unsettling aesthetic in the work of Australian artist Petrina Hicks. She seduces my eyes with the clean and glossy look of commercial advertising photography, but injects it with a surreal – even slightly creepy – quality that I can’t quite put my finger on. The Stills Gallery describes it as an “intense stillness”.

But whatever that something is, I find it very alluring. And maybe that’s a sign of strong art: her images successfully manage to visually articulate a feeling that is very difficult to put into words. Visit her website for more of her wonderful photographs.

// All images via the artist’s website.