Worlds at her finger-tips: the hand-painted work of Iris Scott

In this video, we meet Iris Scott, an American visual artist best known for her pioneering finger-painting method, whose large-scale pieces offer us a world full of colours, textures and energy.

“There’s nothing between me and the paint – I feel all the tiny nuances,” says Scott, positioning herself in an art movement known as Instinctualism. “I can manipulate thick paint with my fingers in ways brushes never could.”

Based in northern New Mexico today, her innovative technique came about as an after-thought in 2010, while she was living in Taiwan. With an oil painting almost complete, and all her brushes stained, rather than stopping to clean them, she decided to use her fingertips to put the finishing touches on the canvas.

It was a decision that changed the course of her career.

Flash forward to today, and her well-developed technique is fast: Scott can use up to four fingers at once rather than a single brush, likening the process to a dance. And she can just wipe her hands off on a paper towel to change hues, rather than constantly switching or painstakingly cleaning brushes.

Her unusual technique was initially a hit on Facebook, where she had already been selling paintings directly to collectors for as little as $50. But as her new style evolved, demand for her works has since grown exponentially, with some of her paintings able to command over $40,000.

View the original video here.

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