My name is Eileen Backman and I am a 55 year old long-time resident of Bloomington, Illinois, mother of a college student, wife of attorney Jon Backman, and recent “Empty Nester.” After my son went to off to university four years ago, I started re-exploring my passion for art. From the pencil drawings I loved to do as a kid, I moved on to work with watercolor, acrylic, ink painting, soft pastel and digital artworks.

In July 2020, I started to sell my work locally at Main Gallery 404 in downtown Bloomington, and do some limited commissioned work. In August 2020, I began selling my images for art prints and products on Fine Art America, and now have over 2000 images uploaded in my online gallery.

In the summer of 2021, I seized the opportunity to become one of the three new owners of Main Gallery 404! From this venture, both my art practice and my art business has grown tremendously. Although I paint a lot of different subjects, I have become “known” for my watercolor and ink renditions of Downtown Bloomington locations, and have been hired to do commissioned paintings of businesses, buildings and homes in the area, including West Bloomington Revitalization Project, Illinois Art Station, The Bistro, Gridley Antiques, Desthil, Timothy Kent Framing, Bobzay Books, Red Racoon, Becks’s Floral, and La La Boutique. I even did an 8 foot long painting of the downtown Bloomington for the live auction at the 2023 Grape Soiree event for Easter Seals.

I love creating art, and love it even more when my art can be used to help out local businesses and causes. That is why 25% of the proceeds of the sales of any of the pieces displayed at Under Wraps will be donated to Crossroads.