Painter has art in the palm of her hand

(Source: Dailymail)

An artist has created a quirky canvas for her fairytale-like paintings - the palm of her hand.

Svetlana Kolosova creates intricate and colourful scenes on her left hand featuring whimsical characters from her imagination.

But they can only last one day before she has to clean them off.

The 30-year-old from Moscow can spend between one and three hours painstakingly applying the paint to her hand, depending on the complexity of the picture.

She explains: 'I never had a goal to find an unusual canvas for drawings.

'I have a lot of paintings on canvas and paper, but the drawings on the palms of the hands I invented myself about five years ago.

Poet and songwriter Svetlana started by drawing Autumn scenes on maple leaves but was inspired to use her hand by her own poems.

'I wanted to draw Autumn scenes on leaves and in my poems leaves are often compared with the palms so I thought why not use my hand as a canvas?'

Svetlana first outlines her plans for the picture with a gel pen and then uses watercolours to complete the painting.

Her scenes are inspired by authors such as Hans Christian Andersen and Antoine de Saint Exupery, whose Little Prince makes an appearance in one of the paintings.

Svetlana believes that another advantage of drawing on the body is that the pictures are not static.

'These pictures can move. If you compress or decompress your hand a little or bend the fingers, then the painted angel tilts its head or spreads its wings.

'But I do not call this body art. I draw only on the palms. And only in order to create a living picture, in which the heart beats.'

Svetlana admits she feels sad when she has to cleanse her hand of the image.

'Such pictures can only live one day, then they have to be washed a...'