Holly Martin

Erika Leitzke

4/19/04

Lesson Title: George Seurat- Pointillism

Cites/Sources:

Grade Level: 4

Overview: This project will allow the students to explore the style of art known as pointillism and the artist, George Seurat, who created it.

Objectives: (Art)

Learner will associate styles used by individual artists with the artist. ACOS H 4.7

Learner will be able to critique a work of art using art vocabulary. ACOS C 4.15 ACOS 4.17

Learner will be able to describe the effects of positioning objects. ACOS A 4.22

Learner will be able to recognize color schemes and experiment with mixing colors. ACOS P 4. 30 ACOS P 4. 31.

(Math)

Learner will be able to solve problems involving basic operations of multiplication. ACOS Number Operations 4.7

Learner will be able to estimate perimeter and area of shapes using unit squares and grid paper. ACOS Measurement 4.14

Materials:

Artworks/Exemplars: “A Sunday in the Park on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” “View of Le Crotoy,” and “Boats Low Tide, Grand Camp” by George Seurat, and “French School” by Paul Signac.

Content Information: Background information of pointillism and George Seurat.

Media/Tools: markers, grid paper, exemplars, sample student work, approximation worksheet, shading poster

Procedures:

1. Introduce pointillism and show works.

  • Pointillism is a technique of painting in which a lot of tiny dots are combined to form a picture. The reason for doing pointillism instead of a picture with physical mixing is that, supposedly, physically mixing colors dulls them. Most of the painters of Seurat’s time blended the colors to make a picture with a smoother feeling than Seurat’s bright, dotty works.

2. Introduce and demonstrate placement of dots to create secondary colors and light and dark illusions.

  • Show shading poster
  • When two colors are right next to each other your eye mixes them in a process called, “optical mixing.” Today we are going to experiment with optical mixing. I will show you some examples of how to make your picture appear brighter using this technique.
  • Talk about shading (add black) and tint ( add white or leave space).

3. Discuss mathematical computation of “Sunday in the Park.”

  • Painting a pointillism piece is a painstakingly slow process. Seurat’s famous “A Sunday in the park on the island of La grande Jette” which covers a wall 81x 120 in took him two years to complete. Imaging this whole wall covered in dots. He was known for amazing devotion and concentration. The dots in his paintings can be a small as 1/16 of an inch in diameter. This is the size of the tip of a pencil. Based on this measurement, “Sunday in the park” has approximately 3,456,000 dots. After you finish your drawing today we are going to calculate approximately how many dots are in your work.

4. Pass out materials and discuss assignment.

  • Pass out sheets. Explain first three blanks. Today we are going to use pointillism to make our own landscape composition. Ask about landscapes. Brainstorm landscapes. Remind them to use optical mixing.

5. Explain how to calculate dots in own work.

  • Explain second half of approximation sheet

6. Check for understanding.

  • What is pointillism?
  • Who’s work did we look at today?
  • If we wanted to make something look dark, what should we do? What is this called?
  • If we wanted to make something look lighter, what should we do? What is this called?
  • Should the dots be close together or far apart?

Modifications: Use paint and Q-tips instead of markers.

Assessment: Check for understanding using questions. Allow students time to share their pieces.