Oil Finger Painting plus Brushes | 36x36in
This painting is the story of how a girl turned into a peacock! Underneath what you currently see is woman with her back to us pinning up her hair. My lovely friend Rachelle posed for the painting, but I was unable to paint her delicate fingers with my own fingers.
It was a frustrating but very illuminating lesson on the limitations of finger painting: fine details like skin and faces need to be made with brushes. Nevertheless, there were parts of the half-finished oil finger painting I still loved. I just couldn’t bring myself to lose certain pieces of her flowery shawl…So I scraped everything off the canvas except the fragmented blue tiles and peach roses. They hardened into place like thick tiles. The canvas sat in my studio, bothering me, for 8 months. I knew there was a way to make a painting that incorporated those textural fragmented pieces, but I couldn’t decide what! Then I did something I hadn’t done in years—9 years to be exact. I was a little scared but also excited. I propped the canvas up on the easel and took a brush to it, in hopes of salvaging an artwork. This was the FIRST ever finger painting I attempted to “save” with a paintbrush, and the result was a distinctive hybrid finger-and-brush painting.The scene started botanical and humid, so, not knowing or worrying about where the painting would go, I just started with a green palette. Letting things flow, at some point a little hint of a peacock feather emerged and I began running with that theme. All bets were off! Leaning into the concept of a “broken painting” a hybrid was born. As I broke my own rule of no brushes, I knew this painting would define a new collection. Now, it is a process-inspired microscopic meditation on peacock feathers. It’s currently one of my favorite pieces because it’s not as literal as my previous works. I am inspired by it because it is a constant reminder that painting over the next several decades will just continue to surprise and challenge me.
