Submitted by:
Deanna Chipley, from Shenandoah Elementary in Orlando, Florida; with notes and additions from KinderArt ®
Objectives:
Learning about the style of art known as pointillism and the artist (Georges Seurat) who created it.
Vocabulary:
pointillism, dots, divisionism, Georges Seurat, color mixing, pure color, melt, combine, arrange
Georges Seurat
The Side Show (Detail), 1888
Oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Image scan: Mark Harden
What You Need:
paper
sticker dots in the primary colors
pen or magic marker (optional)
art examples (optional)
What You Do:
Discuss Pointillism and Georges Seurat.
Artist Georges Seurat was the developer of a very scientific way of painting known as pointillism. He used tiny dots of pure color, side by side to build form in his paintings. These tiny dots of paint, when side by side, give the viewer's eye a chance to blend the color optically, rather than having the colors readily blended on the canvas. This was also known as divisionism.
Discuss optical color blending. Older grades/students should be ready to express how, for example, looking at the colors blue and yellow next to one another will create the illusion of color green.
Have students create a picture using sticker dots. They may wish to first draw a picture with pencil and then fill it in with sticker dots. Remind older students to think of the primary colors mixing to create secondary colors.
Very young children might wish to fill in a coloring book page with sticker dots.
Have a discussion in closing to talk again about Seurat, pointillism and the work that your students created.
Artist Biography:
Georges Seurat was a painter who was interested in shape and pattern, but he approached these things in a very unusual way. He was the developer of a very scientific way of painting known as pointillism.
KinderArt® Lesson/Activity 
