My little finger

How can I convey the beauty of the human form? Sometimes I hold up my hand close to my eye so that I can see it out of focus and stillhouetted , and look at my little finger. A finger is a beautiful thing. I’m using mine as an example that stands for all the rest.

I’m not looking here to describe what the finger does or how it works, just what I see, what is beautiful.

Artists look, and when people look deeply at something we become aware of the miracles in reality. The specific miracle here has been created over billions of years, and the result of this development appears infinitely beautiful. It’s a finger inherent in the life of the universe itself, created by a compassionate universe.

Starting to look now at my little finger, I see there is an exquisite turn downwards from the nail, following the contour anticlockwise around the tip, which is almost a Fibonacci curve which levels into the pad of the fingerprint and then has a gorgeous sweep down to the first joint. Appearing to be a delightful straight line but still a beautifully subtle curve, this dips and rises almost imperceptibly. The fatty area is squeezed before the callus of the palm, another lovely curve echoed in the finger above. Ruskin said there isn’t a line in nature, and when drawing one should not focus on the contour. But the contour alone shows the form, an abstraction that only appears in art.

Heading the other way, past the tip, there is a wonderful pause at the nail which is just out of view from this angle. This delicately straight edge continues before rising so gently upwards to the knuckle of the first and second phalanx. The relaxed folds of the knuckle appear bumpy before rising in a fine curve of fat. Incidentally there are no muscles in fingers. As I write I am looking across a bay in Cornwall watching the undulating stone hills pitch and roll down to the sea. There are parallels here between the landscape and the body yet the landscape lacks this exquisite design. The parallel between the top and the bottom of the finger here is just slightly off and so sweet, so lovely. The musicality of these two contour lines sings.

I find it breathtaking to take in the shape of the human figure. It enthrals and captivates me. Reproducing these contours exactly as I feel them, looking deeply and carefully, is the goal of my work. There is eternity in these lines and forms. The record or journey of this looking remains on the paper like songlines. I think my way over the form and leave the drawing as evidence of this thought.