New School Montessori preprimary art teacher, Ryonen Ignatius, introduced her students to pointillism by reading a story about painter George Seurat.
Georges Seurat was a painter who lived in France in the the late 1800s, painting in a style called pointillism. He used lots of small dots painted closely together. Up close, the dots look more separate – like an abstract painting, but the farther you step away from the painting, the more your eyes magically blend the dots to create a scene with dimension, shadow and shape.
Seurat’s painting called A Sunday on La Grande Jatte is 7 feet tall and 10 feet wide and is made ENTIRELY of tiny dots! Notice the shadows in the grass made with dark green dots next to the light green ones.
To make your own pointillism painting, gather your materials and draw an outline of a picture on a thick piece of paper. Use Q-Tips as paint brushes; they’re great for making dots! As you start putting dots on your drawing, use darker colors for shadows and lighter ones for brighter parts. Blue dots next to yellow dots will make your eyes blend them to green. Enjoy making your own pointillism paintings!
