Professional Artist Proves Fingerpainting Not Just For Children

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Kids love to fingerpaint, but there's an artist in Brooklyn who discovered it by accident and is now a professional fingerpainter.

As CBS2's Cindy Hsu reported, Iris Scott, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, only works with oil paint, gloves and her fingers. For years, she used brushes, even as a child, winning art awards.

But seven years ago, in the middle of a painting, she ran out of clean brushes and finished the piece by using her fingers.

"I was like: 'Oh, that's going to be the rest of my life. I'm never going to paint with brushes again. It doesn't make sense,'" Scott said.

She can switch between more than 100 colors very quickly. Since all she has to do is wipe her fingers with a paper towel, there's no more constantly cleaning brushes.

"I can use five points of contact instead of one paintbrush point," she said.

That allows her to paint about five times faster than before.

Scott's professional pieces take anywhere from one day to a week to finish. Because the paints are so thick, it takes three weeks to dry.

She said her originals go for anywhere from $7,000 to $30,000.

If you'd like to try it out yourself, Scott says to invest in just a few high-quality oil paints. She also says to have fun with it -- that there's no way to mess up fingerpainting.