Fingerpaint is a kind of paint

Paint

Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...

 intended to be applied with the finger

Finger

A finger is a limb of the human body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of humans and other primates....

s; it typically comes in pots and is used by small child

Child

Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...

ren, though it has occasionally been used by adult

Adult

An adult is a human being or living organism that is of relatively mature age, typically associated with sexual maturity and the attainment of reproductive age....

s either to teach art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 to children, or for their own use.

Finger paint for education and therapy

Fingerpaint as an art education medium was originally formulated by the American educator Ruth Faison Shaw in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 in 1931. After developing her expressive medium for children, Shaw devoted her attention to the therapeutic benefits of finger-painting. At the request of Carl Menninger

Carl Menninger

Carl Menninger is an American actor, director and playwright. He is currently the Director of Theatre, Musical Theatre, and Dance at American University in Washington, DC...

, she taught at the Southard School at the Menninger Foundation

Menninger Foundation

The Menninger Foundation was founded in 1919 by the Menninger family in Topeka, Kansas, and consists of a clinic, a sanatorium, and a school of psychiatry, all of which bear the Menninger name. In 2003, the Menninger Clinic moved to Houston. The foundation was started by Drs. Karl, Will, and...

 in Topeka, Kansas

Kansas

Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

. USA. Later she served as a consultant to the Department of Psychiatry at Memorial Hospital at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

. While working at Memorial Hospital, she met psychologist, John Thomas Payne. Payne became her successor in 1969 and continued her work until his death in 2000. Today Shaw and Payne's work continues at the Shaw School and Studio in Durham, NC. Founder and director, Bryan Carey apprenticed with Payne from 1986–1993. At the suggestion of Payne, Carey devoted an additional seven years to the study of Shaw as an historical figure—artist, teacher and therapist. Carey and his protege Jennifer Falchi continue the Shaw-Payne tradition by traveling and teaching their method of artistic self-expression and emotional healing to people of all ages and abilities.

Technique

Although the name implies that the paint is applied with the fingers, expert use of this medium makes use of the hand

Hand

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered extremity located at the end of an arm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs...

s and lower arm

Arm

In human anatomy, the arm is the part of the upper limb between the shoulder and the elbow joints. In other animals, the term arm can also be used for analogous structures, such as one of the paired forelimbs of a four-legged animal or the arms of cephalopods...

s too. Use of the entire arm smooths the paint on the paper prior to more detailed modeling with the fingers and other parts of the hand. Sometimes sponge

Sponge (tool)

A sponge is a tool, implement, utensil or cleaning aid consisting of porous material. Sponges are used for cleaning impervious surfaces. They are especially good absorbers of water and water-based solutions....

s, cloth, and other tools are used to obtain a specific texture.

Some artists are known to solely paint with their hands, as a way to become more intimate with the process. These artists do not use traditional fingerpaint. This style, "Reckless Art," is most accurately categorized as a sub-genre of outsider art

Outsider Art

The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...

. Painters like Tyler Ramsey

Tyler Ramsey (artist)

This article is about the artist. For the singer-songwriter, see Tyler Ramsey.Tyler Ramsey is an American painter and former television producer. He is known for his unique style of art in which he uses his fingers in lieu of brushes...

 have vowed never to touch a brush, but the use of surgical gloves for safety is common when using toxic oils. Tyler Ramsey claims that, "Rejecting brushes gives a painter the opportunity to approach the craft from a fresh perspective." "Reckless Art" started in 2002 as a way to refute the idea that "Everything has been done already."

Finger painting artist Nick Benjamin claims he "prefers to paint using fingers as the technique results in a real bond between the artwork and artist and allows for some intricate blending not achievable with brushes".

Outsider artist Jimmy Lee Sudduth

Jimmy Lee Sudduth

Jimmy Lee Sudduth was a prominent outsider artist and blues musician from Fayette, Alabama .Sudduth was raised on a farm at Caines Ridge, near Fayette, Alabama. He began making art as a child, surrounding the porch of his parents' house with hand-carved wooden dolls and drawing in the dirt or on...

 explained that he painted with his fingers because they "never wore out" the way brushes did.

Fingerpaint treated repeatedly by means of decalcomania

Decalcomania

Decalcomania, from the French décalcomanie, is a decorative technique by which engravings and prints may be transferred to pottery or other materials. It was invented in England about 1750 and imported into the United States at least as early as 1865...

 on the same paper tends to generate fractal

Fractal

A fractal has been defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity...

s, as studied at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 http://classes.yale.edu/Fractals/Panorama/Art/Decalcomania/Decalcomania.html.

Materials

Fingerpaint is non-toxic, and is usually sold in packages of six bright colors. The paints can also be prepared from non-toxic household products such as flour or cornstarch.

Some childcare facilities use instant pudding as fingerpaint eliminating the need to keep the children's fingers out of their mouths.