See it to Believe it…Nail Polish Portraits!

The idea to use the beauty product as paint came from years of shooting nail polish blobs for beauty editorials and cosmetic companies. Blackburne told NY Magazine, “I knew for a while that I wanted to do some sort of painting with nail polish, but I can’t really draw much more than stick figures myself.” 

After meeting Eli at a group show last year, the two decided to collaborate on a series of portraits — inspired by Jackson Pollock, John Singer Sargent, and street paintings by Greenpoint-based artist Paul Richard.

When asked how nail polish differed from other materials he’s used, Neugeboren replied, “It’s very close to painting with heavy enamel — like something you’d use to paint the fence outside your house. It’s very viscous and thick; it has such a heavy, soupy feel to it.It’s very different from working in oils or something like that, where you’re really pushing the paints together on the palette and then pushing the paints together on the canvas, and really mashing it up. With dripping, you have to get over the natural impulse to want to control everything and make it perfect.”

The portraits had to be photographed while the nail polish was still wet and hasn’t separated yet.

Which nail polish worked the best? Gel polish in flat, opaque colors!

Said Blackburne, “Nail polish is so much fun to work with!”

Talk about art being literally at your fingertips!