Every time I leave my studio I have oil paint stains on my hands, Prussian Blue is stubborn. In the early stages of the arts in Greece and Rome, painting and sculpting were considered low forms of art, manual labor. True it is that if one is an artist their hands will forever show the labor of their passion. I sometimes wonder if that is the precise reason some thing are considered “low” others “high” depending on how clean you keep yourself. Just imagine what they would have thought about body artists like Hannah Wilke who uses her whole body for art.
The lovely blue tinge resulted from a large gob of Prussian Blue smeared across my hand from a palette knife. Apparently the handle took a swim in the dollop of paint I had on my palette. By the end of my session I was smudging around the paint with my fingers while changing the composition at the least minute. I suppose I’ll be getting some strange looks from my tax clients tomorrow…
The painting I was "smudging" Let's Get Lost c. 2011
