'Finger painting'

We have all heard the tragic events of the Moors Murders, the reason why we were told never to accept lifts from strangers. The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17; Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. Named  the Moor Murders because two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered on the moor in 1987, more than 20 years after Brady and Hindley's trial in 1966. The body of a fourth victim, Keith Bennett, is also suspected to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered.

 


  In 1995, artist Marcus Harvey recreated the iconic police photograph that was printed in almost every British newspaper  of Myra Hindley at the time of the discovery of the murders. Myra was called the most evil woman in Britain for these murders and is known for her stern faced look in the police photograph. 
The painting was create on a 2.7 by 3.4 m canvas. To create the image he took casts of infants hands and slowly build up the image to create a juxtapose affect. 

 




 






I wanted to attempt using this method of building up an image through continued layering. Instead of using infants hand casts, I used my own finger prints as I was working on a smaller scale than Marcus. I kept to using grey scale the same as Marcus and I am very pleased with the outcome. If I were to attempt this piece again I would produce it on a larger scale.




 





Developing on, I became interested in working in grey scale. Continuing with looking at hands, I looked at a photographer called Andy Drewitt. He produced photography which had a very high contrast between light and dark grey scale. I produced the painting on the left using acrylic paint on black sugar paper. I used only black and white paint to attempt as high a contrast as possible. 

These two studies have helped to develop my skills in grey scale further.