We are sharing with you this week some of the amazing artists that set up shop at the National Harvest Festival at Silver Dollar City. Yesterday, we showed you Dennis’ bronze sculptures. Today we get to look at a unique way of painting.Julie A. Rice takes finger-painting to a whole new level! We walked by her art and were instantly drawn in. We watched her for several minutes before we got her attention to talk to her. Using just one of her fingers and an ink pad, Julie paints life-like masterpieces. From far away, you just see the complete picture, but when you get up close, you can see the fingerprint texture.She holds her pad of ink and the photo of an artist friend on her phone in her left hand and uses her right hand to create this painting. The ink is an embossing pigment ink and the canvas is an acid-free foam poster board.

Julie started off as a pencil artist, but her attention to detail caused tendinitis to keep her from pursuing that art form any further.

About 10 years ago, her church asked her to help with a project that would involve the whole congregation. Using thumbprints, they created a picture of Jesus to hang up in the church. From this project, she was inspired to try it as a way to continue her artistry in a pain free way. She was concerned about being able to get detailed with just the tip of her finger, but as you can see by the pictures on her website she has succeeded!It can take her about a week to finish a painting this large. If the ink is light, it dries quickly, but the darker parts can take a day or two to dry completely. She uses pictures as her inspiration or takes pictures of interesting people she meets and uses those to paint from.
Check out some video demonstrations of Julie fingertip painting here.

Thank you so much, Julie, for sharing this unique form of art with us!