Like a writer, Marcelle Hanselaar  ‘makes up’ characters. If you ask her about the women in her paintings she will tell you that while they may sometimes be based physically on someone she saw in the street, they are essentially fictional beings. These women and young girls display a very real sense of fear, confrontation, and expectation. They can be manipulative, passive, or aggressive – or a combination of all of these. Yet there is always a sense of concentration, as if they are waiting for something to happen. Their gaze at or away from the viewer is unnerving – a still tableau that is about to erupt into an intense piece of theatre.