Iris Scott's Angel Trilogy Brings Finger-Painted Angels to the Forest

Three oil paintings completed in late 2026 make up the Angel Trilogy, the newest body of work by Brooklyn-based artist Iris Scott, who is described as one of the few fine-art finger painters active today. Titled Owl and Embers, Feather Script and The Violet Vestment, the canvases were built up through intuitive hand-applied layers of oil paint, producing surfaces the artist says remain wet. Each picture centers on faceless angels, fires lit beneath colorful trees and hieroglyphic markings resembling an unknown script. In Owl and Embers, two gowned figures ring a fire in a eucalyptus grove while owls seem to step out of the trees and a pair of white wings lifts a hem from the ground. Feather Script shows two angels rising from flames, one pregnant, the other bearing wings patterned with glyphs. The Violet Vestment sets a haloed, priestlike figure beside an angel who leans in to whisper. Scott told My Modern Met she wants the paintings to read as relics of a civilization that may never have existed, sacred and ancient yet impossible to date. Originals and prints are on sale through her website.