Judith Ann Braun- Fingerprint Artist


She's a dab hand at this! Artist uses just her fingerprints to create huge murals with charcoal

  • Judith Ann Braun, from New York, uses just her fingertips and vast quantities of charcoal to create large symmetrical patterns and sweeping landscapes
  • Details of trees and plants in landscapes are all perfectly symmetrical
  • Braun. 65, has had her work exhibited in a number of New York galleries

These incredible charcoal creations are the perfectly symmetrical work of New York artist Judith Ann Braun, who rejects the conventional artists' brushes and pastels to paint with just her fingertips.
For nearly a decade, Braun, 65, has dipped her magical fingers in graphite and made enormous, imaginative patterns and even detailed landscapes of trees and waterways on wall-sized canvasses.
Her landscapes of winding rivers, rolling hills and trees are so eye-catching, it's hard to believe they're created without traditional equipment. 
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Magic fingers: This Judith Ann Braun work is entitled 'Diamond Dust' was created live for public viewing over seven days and also streamed live over the web
Magic fingers: This Judith Ann Braun landscape work is entitled 'Diamond Dust' was created live for public viewing over seven days and also streamed live over the web
Perfect symmetry: This work is typical of Braun - a perfectly balanced floral pattern created entirely from charcoal and created using just her fingertips
Perfect symmetry: This work is typical of Braun - a perfectly balanced floral pattern created entirely from charcoal and created using just her fingertips
Taking shape: Braun, 65, uses entire walls as the canvas for her charcoal creations
Taking shape: Braun, 65, uses entire walls as the canvas for her charcoal creations


Braun formerly worked on realistic figure paintings and heavenly scenes including angels, but some of her nineties work courted controversy.
She specialised in sexually explicit work which deeply divided opinion - this included a 13ft tall 'Blue Penis' at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.

After a brief time painting portraits, she started her 'Symmetrical Procedures' project in 2003 and exhibited her first work a year later. 
Finger tips: Braun rejects the conventional equipment used by artists and uses just her fingertips to create wild, symmetrical and imaginative designs
Finger tips: Braun rejects the conventional equipment used by artists and uses just her fingertips to create wild, symmetrical and imaginative designs
Design rules: Braun sets just three criteria for her work - they must be symmetrical, abstract and in a carbon-based medium
Design rules: Braun sets just three criteria for her work - they must be symmetrical, abstract and in a carbon-based medium
Contrast: This pattern was made by using white graphite on a black surface rather than the usual opposite
Contrast: This pattern was made by using white graphite on a black surface rather than the usual opposite
Wild wall: The full extent of Braun's landscape at the Chrysler Museum of Art
Wild wall: The full extent of Braun's landscape at the Chrysler Museum of Art
Braun subscribes to three rules in her work - they must be symmetrical, they must be abstract and they have to be in a carbon medium, usually charcoal. 
One landscape work, entitled 'Diamond Dust', was created live in front of visitors at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia in seven days and also streamed live via web cam.
Inspired by the Virginia countryside, it was different to Braun's other works in that it opened out into a landscape, though all the foliage and fauna within it remain symmetrical.
At present, her work is on display in galleries in Brooklyn, Albany and Long Island, while a show entitled 'Graphite' is to open next year at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
Work in progress: The artist has been exhibited at a number of prominent galleries in the New York area and beyond
Work in progress: The artist has been exhibited at a number of prominent galleries in the New York area and beyond
Finished product: This design brings the outdoors indoors
Finished product: This design brings the outdoors indoors

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