Jessica Farrell (b. 1963) is a self-taught painter who grew up in southern Indiana. She spent her early adulthood living in New York City, working in commercial photography, and attending evening drawing classes at the School of Visual Arts. In 1989, Farrell moved to a small hamlet in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. For twenty years, she partnered with her husband, creating hundreds of pieces of obsessive art furniture from natural materials. In addition to her art practice, Farrell manages the David Byrd Estate Catalogue Raisonné. Her work has appeared in Town & Country, Country Living Magazine, The New York Times, and more.
Farrell’s paintings reflect her fascination with the natural world and the interconnection of all living things. Influenced by the rural surroundings of her locale, her work explores the vast, raw landscape, verdant forests, abundant wildlife, and the people that live in her community. Mythic, dreamlike scenarios emerge in her paintings to expose the power and fragility of the human condition.