Resident artist Will Baaske is a New York-based interdisciplinary creative fresh out of the Fashion Institute of Technology. Will’s work focuses on unexpected natural spaces and the flora and fauna that shelters within. Through paint, pencil, charcoal and pastel, he brings to life moths, thistles and other plants and creatures in an ongoing exploration of natural transformation, informed by his transgender experience.

Before the residency, the artist worked mainly in oils and encaustic paints. He found the switch to acrylic liberating: “I can do a lot more things a lot faster with acrylics.” Will’s colorful paintings of guarded nature are created with layers of texture and relief, applied with a gestural freedom. Bold shapes are refined with drawn lines and heightened with contrasting pops of vivid bright color.

In the Liquitex studio at The Yard, Will experimented with the thick, rich structure of Bio-Based Heavy Acrylic and a range of mediums, including his favorites, Stucco Medium and Clear Gesso. “Adding Stucco to color creates a really fine texture ground that lets the pastels and charcoal adhere to the paint.”

Advice for other artists graduating? “I’d say, stay involved, keep to an artistic routine, keep studying things around you and keep connected with your old classmates and tutors to find new possibilities.”

Follow Will on Instagram and via his website.