Meet resident artist Eileen Ferara as she explores her relationship with the environment using a range of media. Born in the Bronx, Eileen holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY and now lives in Jersey City, a place she calls “the urban wild”. Fascinated by nature in unexpected places, she celebrates weeds growing through asphalt, the way plants reclaim abandoned trainlines and how green life adapts and changes when it meets humanity.

Time in the Liquitex residency studio in East Orange, NJ, has allowed Eileen to take her multidiscipline practice further, focusing on different aspects of her creativity. “I’m expanding my painting vocabulary while making work reflecting on bodies of water, things that live in them and around them, and exploring different surfaces.” Found objects - both man-made and organic - collected while out walking, have been at the center of her visual adventures.

Eileen has also road-tested a brand new Liquitex paint format launching later in 2024 – so stay tuned for more on that. Other go-to studio essentials from the residency include Liquitex Professional Matte Medium, “a workhorse” for glueing media to canvases and adjusting paint opacity; and the freedom of Liquitex Freestyle palette knives. “I’ve loved exploring the big wide gestures I can make. You can put the paint on thick, like frosting on a cake, or scrape into it and draw into your color. I’ve really had fun.”