Ruth Faison Shaw
Ruth Faison Shaw (October 15, 1889 – December 8, 1969) was an American artist and educator who helped introduce finger painting as a serious art and learning method in the United States. She created a safe, non-toxic finger-paint medium in 1931 and wrote about the technique.
Shaw was born in Kenansville, North Carolina. Her father was a Presbyterian minister, and she had four brothers. She studied at the James Sprunt Institute (graduating in 1906) and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, then worked briefly as a teacher in the Appalachian Mountains.
In 1918 she traveled to France and Italy with the YWCA and eventually started a school in Rome. There she developed her finger painting methods and materials, including a gelatinous paint she patented in 1931. She returned to the United States in 1932 and joined the Dalton School in New York City, where finger painting was added to the curriculum. An exhibition of finger painting was held in Manhattan in 1933.
Shaw published Finger Painting: A Perfect Medium for Self-Expression in 1934. She is remembered as a pioneer of progressive education. She started a New York paint factory to produce her medium and organized finger painting workshops for adults. In 1942 she became a lecturer at Teachers College, Columbia University.
She died in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on December 8, 1969. A collection of her papers is housed at the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:19 (CET).