Crystin Irwin's List: Pointillism

Artageous with Nate is a children's art program that focuses on art and art history in an exciting way. This video meets the National Visual Arts Standards in a fun way. This episode focuses on the life and work of Georges Seurat and the science of Pointillism.

'Bathers at Asniers' is an oil-on-canvas painting by Georges Seurat. This painting was completed in 1884 when he was only 24 years old. The scene depicted is of swimmers along the River Seine. Seurat uses a combination of complex brushstrokes and advanced knowledge of color theory to bring a vibrancy to the painting.

'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' by Georges Seurat is a landscape that took him over two years to complete. The painting is massive, measuring 7 feet by 10 feet. Seurat used is knowledge in optical color theory to mix colors. He used miniature dots of color that through a process called optical unification creates a single color in the eye of the viewer. This type of painting was called divisionism but is now called pointillism. This is how Seurat achieved more vivid colors than using brushstrokes. The painting was first exhibited in 1886 at the second Salon, which Seurat was founder.

Cross co-founded the second Salon in 1884. Cross' style did not change as his Neo-Impressionist friends. His early works were somber and realistic but gradually his works became brighter and lighter as he embraced the Impressionism style. In 1891, Cross showcased his first large piece using this style. The painting was a portrait of Madame Hector France that Cross had met in 1888 and would marry in 1893.

Charles Angrand's self portrait is an excellent example of Neo-Impressionists, manipulating light in works of art. Angrand depicts himself as a high-class citizen dressed in a suit, smoking a cigar instead of an artist. Angrand uses the textured white paper to illuminate the dark crayon creating tiny dots of light and dark. These dots blend together with the eye to create various shades of grey.

Vincent van Gough created 'The Starry Night' in 1889 from his window at the Saint Remy de Provence. He painted during the day so this entire painting was created from memory. This painting is not created with dots, but with dashes. The thick sweeping brushstrokes add to the movement of the night's sky against the still village.

Lucas is a painting of fellow artist Lucas Samaras by Chuck Close. Close is part of the Super-Realist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. These detailed portraits are painted on a monumental scale by enlarging photographs. Up close these works are just circles of color that do not emerge unless the viewer is standing some distance away from the artwork.

The Pointillator is a web tool used to create digital art using the pointillism style. The user is given a blank canvas and an array of different colored dots. Use the dots to layer different colors to create your own just like Seurat did in his paintings. View the close up picture of Seurat's work to see an example above the Pointillator.

Hero by Miguel Endara began as a study of faces. He wanted to get some practice time with drawing faces when his dad came over to visit. His dad's face showed plenty of experience that Endara wanted in a piece of work. He wanted to highlight the pores and other imperfections that are normally missed in other portraits so Endara scanned his father's face at a very high resolution to showcase every detail in this pointillism piece.

Clare is an artist from Liverpool that produces intricate, graphically striking art. She is fascinated by Australian aboriginal art and creates her own designs of dot style painting. The paintings are done using acrylic on canvas with the end of a paintbrush. She plays with vibrant colors, patters, symmetry, and optical illusions.

This is a video of Aboriginal artist John Turnbull at work. Can you identify the similarities and differences between his type of work and Clare Ellis'?

Matt Booth takes pointillism to a whole new level with the addition of phosphorescent ink. The white dots that create the skull are created with paint that glows green when the lights go out bringing this painting to life.

JoKa uses toothpicks to apply paint in the pointillism style but smaller creating a new term called hyper-pointillism. This results in deeply detailed and complex work. He is known for bright pieces with imaginative pieces. This is from the collection The Noise in the Basement of things hidden or buried. JoKa distorts familiar images to created hauntingly beautiful work.

Christian Faur created ‘Experiement 5’ in 2008 using hand cast crayons. He used the crayons like pixels in a photo as he arranged thousands to create elaborate works art that combine pointillism and digital photography. He even created an e-book called A Book of Crayons where the reader can enjoy the sculptural and pictorial sides of his work.

Philip Karlberg uses pins to create sculptural pointillism of famous individuals that wear sunglasses. It took him only six days create six celebrities out of these pegs. Do you recognize Jackie O?

The obliteration room by Yayoi Kusama is pointillism brought to life. The room started with all white furniture and then as volunteers placed small colorful dots the beautiful masterpiece emerged. Kusama who was plagued by vision impairments incorporated dots into her artwork because that is how she saw the world. In this piece, Kusama invites the public to experience her world. Watch the video of how it transformed into art.

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Please read the rubric before beginning the Pointillism Project. After you complete the project, please answer the questions at the bottom of the rubric to self-evaluate and reflect on your artwork.