Finger painting

This girl came from paint to paper via only my fingers. Mainly fingertips, but nails were needed for the finer details (it's very difficult to transfer paint from fingernails to paper with any kind of control, I can assure you!).

It's an exercise for the Experimental Art Course which I'm also sharing for Paint Party Friday. If I'd had time I would probably have done more paintings with sponges, sticks and stones for assignment 2, but this is the extent of my artwork this week. Fingers have been glued to keyboard all week churning out the work stuff.

I'm really rather proud of her. A few years ago I'd have been chuffed if I'd painted this with a brush! I think it comes down to attitude. Painting with my fingers, I hardly expected to create a masterpiece. It was play, experimentation. I didn't have to share the result on here or even indeed with my fellow students in our Flickr group. It didn't matter if it was a total disaster.

And the result when the pressure was off? Well, I like it! OK, no masterpiece, but there's something fresh and fun about her. This was on my mind a lot this week - letting go of being precious, being brave. I've been trying to apply it to my writing and creativity at work too; I've been writing a tonne of articles and helping pull together presentation materials for the senior management team. Sometimes when we try too hard it's just so stiff and pretentious.

Maybe I'll take some paint into the office and get the Board finger painting... What do you think?

Diving in

Too much going on. Too much on the list. I wanted to paint last night but I was too antsy. I'd been antsy all day, not being able to settle long on any task before flipping to the next one. A mind full of projects, plans and expectations. I sat in front of a blank sheet of paper and wanted the result NOW. There was only one thing for it. Just dive in - it was, after all, going to be a seascape.

I set myself the task of painting without paintbrush. As you can probably tell, this was painted mostly using one finger! I employed an old credit card and bottle top towards the end for the final flourish. Readers of an earlier post this week will know what this illustrates!

It is of course Friday and ta-dah, I have something for Paint Party Friday! It might well look like a child's finger painting - but hey, it's paint on paper and it's Friday! (If Amelia is reading - look! More experimenting!!)

Now here's a slightly older painting which you, (yes, YOU!) can get your hands on. It is currently up for bidding in the Inspiration Avenue Auction for the Angel Faces Charity. Currently it stands at a mere snip of $20. Just look at her, she's imploring you to bid... Who could resist those eyes...?? And, if you don't like this, there's so much more to choose from!