Monday, May 9, 2022

Spring Pointilism Dot Paintings

 


Grade 4 - 6 students learned about Pointilism and the work of George Seurat. They looked at his famous painting "Un Dimanche Après-Midi À L'île De La Grande Jatte" (1884-86) ("Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte") and discussed all the things they could see in the painting and as well as his paint application (small dots of paint). We counted all the dogs!  The French do like their dogs!

The revolutionary painting technique that eventually became known as Pointillism attempted to use the science of optics when creating paintings. This was done by painting small but separate dots of unmixed colors side by side, which were placed in various patterns in order to form an image.


Students were given the theme of "Spring" and could draw any object they wanted. 
I encouraged them to think in terms of large, simple shapes. 
They drew this on white paper, then used Q-tips (cotton swabs) and tempera paint to add dots within each shape. They had to use a minimum of two colours within each section. This lesson was a test of their patience for sure!  I had to do a lot of encouraging in order for them not to give up!






Grade 4 - 6 results!















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