G EORGE S EURAT Pointillism Art Smart

W HAT IS P OINTILLISM ? Pointillism describes the application of paint in dots or small dabs of color The idea behind pointillism is to not physically mix colors – instead you place specific colors next to each other – called divisionism When two colors are right next to each other, your eye mixes them in a process called, "optical mixing" Optical mixing rather than physical mixing can create a brighter picture

H OW ARE P OINTILLISM & G EOMETRY RELATED ? Points are building blocks of geometry. A point is “that which has no length, width, or height.” We also remember that a point is represented with ( x, y ), where x is the horizontal and y is the vertical; and, that in maps, a point represents a location Points are very important especially for painters who use the technique called pointillism.  They are small dots on computer screens and other digital devices such as televisions, cellular phones, and cameras that make up the texts, photos, and videos we see.  Finding the number of pixels on a screen is just like finding the area of a rectangle; that is, multiplying the length and the width.area of a rectangle  That means that a computer screen that has dimensions 1024 by 768 pixels has a resolution of 788,736 pixels.  The more number of pixels, the better the graphics. Pixels Why?

COLOR Color is a visual effect resulting from the human eye’s ability to distinguish different wavelengths of the light it reflects. Objects that REFLECT wavelengths appear WHITE Objects that ABSORB wavelengths appear BLACK For example: a green object reflects green & absorbs all other wavelengths

All subjects were divided into: Primary colorsRedYellowBlue Complimentary colors RedGreen Red/Green YellowViolet Yellow/Violet BlueOrange Blue/Orange

W HO CREATED P OINTILLISM ? Invented by George Seurat ( – died at age 31) Born and lived in France Due to his slow, meticulous method of painting, Seurat painted less than ten major works in his career – though he made hundreds of sketches and practice drawings He was known for amazing devotion and concentration and worked on each painting for years Seurat is known as a scientific painter because he created specific rules of how to use colors (based on scientific research) and composition

S EURAT ’ S MOST FAMOUS PAINTING Seurat's famous "A Sunday in the Park on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (also known as "Sunday in the Park") covered a wall (81 inches by 120 inches), It took him two years to complete. The dots in a pointillist painting can be as small as 1/16 of an inch in diameter. Based on these measurements, "Sunday in the Park" has approximately 3,456,000 dots!

George Seurat

T HINGS TO THINK ABOUT Should the dots be close together and bunched up, or far apart? If we wanted to make something in our painting look darker, what should we do? What common items in our homes use the optical mixing of dots of color?

L ESSON Begin with larger paper Tape the edges of the paper to table with tape Sketch a landscape with a pencil Dip the Q-tip into the paint Pressing down lightly will make a small dot, more pressure will create a larger one Try to fill up as much of the paper as possible with color Remove the tape when the painting is dry Begin small paper painting using one part of your larger painting.