Finger painting is simple. For most people, it's just
dipping your finger in paint, then dotting, dragging,
or smearing it on paper. These paintings
are usually priceless in the eyes of a parent, but they wouldn't
sell for $20,000. That's how much Iris Scott's
finger paintings start at, and they can go
up to over $40,000. Iris found a way to turn
what most of us think of as an elementary-school
pastime into a serious career. So what makes these finger
paintings worth so much? Iris focuses on a type of
art called instinctualism. It's a relatively new thing, and the general movement,
at least for Iris, is in response
to the popularity of minimalism
and abstract art. Instead of leaving the viewer
with something to interpret, instinctualism is more
direct and easily understood. Its main goal:
to make a connection with the person looking at it. Filo Sofi Arts, the
gallery that represents and sells some of Iris's
work to collectors, attributes the
rise of this movement to the success of Iris's work. Iris starts these huge
paintings with the background. And by huge, it means her
canvas can be as large as 8 feet tall by 8 feet wide. Because of the sheer size, the materials
alone start to add up. She slips on the gloves and smears the first few
colors across the board, but instead of
covering the background with thick smears of paint, Iris sprays it with
water to thin it out, which creates a watercolor
effect for the background. And there's a reason why all
her paintings are so large. Iris Scott: Finger painting
is really good at some things and not very
good at other things. For example, it's not very
good at very fine details. A little brush would be very good at
eyelashes, for example, but if I paint an
eye that's this big, the eyelashes are no problem. So, it's a bit of the
obstacle is the way. If I just paint larger, there isn't really any
subject that I can't paint. Narrator: In this case, Iris
is working on a painting of a wet dog that's
shaking off water. She starts with
the outline of the pup. Once the outline is put down, it's time to start the hard part: making a finger-painted
dog look real. To do this, Iris focuses on getting the details just right, from the hair to the eyes. She swaps between using
different pressures of strokes, dotting, swiping, patting,
and smearing the paint. In some instances,
she squeezes the paint directly onto the canvas
and spreads it around using her fingertips
or her knuckles. In other cases,
she squeezes the paint directly onto her fingers
and goes from there. Iris: Finger painting
is so much fun. It's a lot like being a
professional kindergartner, and I love my job, and every day I'm quite grateful that this is what I
get to do with my life. Narrator: Iris
uses shades of paint that match the colors
found in the dog's coat and adds texture to create
realistic strokes for the fur. Once the eyes are added in and
most of the fur is complete, the subject
becomes recognizable. Then the dog has to dry. Because she uses oil paints, that could take up to a week. After drying, she
delicately places sheets of paper over
the pup to protect it and throws paint to
create splashes of water. For additional spatters, she dots paint
using her fingertips. She removes the
paper from the dog and leans the
painting against the wall, then adds the last few
dots to complete the piece. Stepping back, the textures
that Iris has spent weeks on, one dot, stroke,
and smear at a time, come together to form
an artistic masterpiece. One that captures
instinctualism and leaves the
viewer with something they can recognize and
connect with right away. So much so
that they're willing to shell out thousands of
dollars to take it home.
