Get to the Point

This week in The Art Room we went back in time to learn about a group of artists from 19th century Paris.

They used tiny dots of paint to execute their artworks, a painting technique known as Pointillism. 

Having looked at pictures of paintings by Georges Seurat, the father of Pointillism, the children took part in a little group experiment to understand his very scientific way of painting. Seurat used tiny dots of pure colour, side by side, to give the viewer’s eye a chance to blend the colours optically, rather than having paint colours pre-mixed together on a palette.  The children demonstrated great knowledge of their primary and secondary colours and correctly identified the colour samples we had made to demonstrate ‘optical mixing’: the purple sample, for example, consisted of hundreds of tiny red and blue dots that had been spotted across the canvas to give the effect of a purple hue when viewed at a certain distance.

Having seen examples of city landmarks, coastal scenes and landscape views, the children were encouraged to sketch out their own composition on paper and practised making small painted dots with cotton buds.  Once their ideas were fully formed and they had mastered their ‘dotty’ technique, the children worked with acrylic paints on mini canvases and carefully painted a Pointillist masterpiece of their own!

We were so impressed with the focus and attention to detail the children showed whilst completing their canvases as well as the wonderful range of ideas they bring to The Art Room each week. Keep an eye out for a fabulous selection of images from this week’s class on our Facebook and Instagram pages over the weekend and please like, share and comment to help us spread the word to more budding young artists.