Hands Teaching Rhythm – Naomi Brooks | Fine Art Print

Two people this close should be the most intimate thing in the picture. Neither one will show you her face.

A woman braiding hair. Both figures turned, cut away from you, held in a thick black contour. Deep warm skin, flat two-colour ground, one simple piece of New York behind them. The whole quiet business of sitting between somebody’s knees while they work.

Look at where the colour starts

The bloom of magenta, cobalt, gold and emerald does not belong to either head. It rises from both of them and folds together in the air between, so the two of them are sharing one burst of colour. That is the part people miss on a first look. You feel the care before you work out what you are looking at.

Naomi Brooks paints people as weather, and she refuses to make them pose for you. I keep the face out of reach. The body says enough. The face stays turned away on purpose: the person is present without being handed over. Ruby, who scores for us, called it “dynamic color and expressive brushwork,” and the average came in at 7.67.

What happens once it is up

It is loud in the best way. Hang it over a dresser, a desk, the gap by a bedroom door, and the room reads confident by morning. Guests ask about the two heads before they ask about anything else.

The flat facts

A high quality print of a digital artwork on museum-grade archival matte paper, smooth and non-reflective, so a lamp or a window opposite gives you the colour back instead of a glare. Printed edge to edge, no white border, so it looks right pinned up bare or dropped into a frame you already own. Rolled in a tube. Made to order, up to ten business days, which means nobody on your street gets this one off a shelf.

A sizing rule: measure the furniture below it and go two-thirds that width. Portrait, 12 x 16 in (30 x 41 cm) at $29, 18 x 24 in (46 x 61 cm) at $49, 24 x 32 in (61 x 81 cm) at $69. The middle size is already selected. Free shipping in the continental US, and the price you see is the price.

One honest thing

This picture does not whisper. If you want art that sits back politely and agrees with your cushions, it will fight you. If you want a wall with a point of view, take it home. Or look through the rest of what Naomi has made, and follow her if you would rather see the next one before everyone else.

One is a piece. Two is a set. Three is a collection.

Almost nobody stops at one. A second work by the same hand turns a wall into a pairing. A third turns it into something you chose rather than something you bought. There are 6 other works by Naomi Brooks available.

Taxi Dissolving Cobalt – Naomi Brooks | Digital Download$19Bridge Through Steel – Naomi Brooks | Fine Art Print$129 – $229Price range: $129 through $229Planks Cooling Cerulean – Naomi Brooks | Digital Download$19Rail Blooming Terracotta – Naomi Brooks | Digital Download$19Skyline Igniting Her – Naomi Brooks | Fine Art Print$29 – $69Price range: $29 through $69Ferry Becoming Evening – Naomi Brooks | Digital Download$19