We are never too old to fingerpaint!

Zaria Forman is an artist from Brooklyn who paints realistic landscapes of Greenland and its icy waters with her fingers and hands.

“When I travel, I take thousands of photographs and make small sketches. Once I am back in the studio, I draw from my memory of the experience, as well as the photographs to create large compositions. I add layers of color onto the paper, smudging everything with my fingers and hand,” --Zaria Forman.

Finger-painting is one of our first experiences with art when we are little and it can be fun and messy but this artist has changed finger-painting into very detailed, realistic landscapes.

Why do you think she chose to use her fingers to paint?

Maybe she liked the way the paint moved under her fingers. We don’t have to always use tools like paintbrushes when we create art. We can make colorful, abstract images with finger-painting or we can work slowly and create more realistic images like this artist.

When you finger-paint, you should experiment with the different ways your fingers can move the paint.

Where to go from here:

• In the painting or printmaking studio you could use finger and thumbprints like this portrait by Chuck Close which was done only using his fingerprints.
• You could use your hands to smudge and blend pencil marks in the drawing studio.
• You can use your hands and feet to bend and break sticks and boxes in the sculpture studio.
• Finger-weaving and braiding in the fiber arts studio.
• All of these ideas use your hands without tools-see what you can do without tools
• you can bring a photograph to school to work from 

Student Work: