Into the frying pan with Georges Seurat?

For the last several months I have been alternately bemoaning/lamenting the tediousness of colored pencil. I finally finished both the pieces I have been working on since the first of the year and I am -- at last -- able to put a brush in my hand.

So what do I do? . . . For that, I turn to this week's art history lesson and introduce Georges Seurat. The French painter born to a rather well-to-do family grew up in the late 1800s. And though his life was tragically brief -- he died at the age of 31 -- he is acknowledged in the art world for having two major impacts. First, Seurat, along with close friend Paul Signac, are regarded as the founders of the Neo-Impressionistic movement. Seurat, moreover, is acknowledged as the founder of the style of painting known as pointillism. (Some art historians lump Neo-Impressionism and Pointillism as one development).

Pointillism, or as Seurat preferred to call it -- divisionism, is pretty much what it sounds like. A pattern of points or dots on a canvas arranged to form the colors. Seurat used whole colors in dot patterns so that when you stood back from his work, the colors would blend visually. He did not mix his colors on the palette, but let the colors "mix" themselves on the canvas. He generally worked on large canvases and, coupled with the fact he did not live long, his body of work is small in comparison with many of the painters working in Europe during the same time.

His most famous work is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which I have posted here:

I must admit the style intrigues me and, if you think about it, Seurat was way way ahead of his time. For what he did back in the late 1800s is not unlike what we do today with pixels. Afterall, the color we see on this computer screen is nothing more than a gazillion pixels lined up next to each other to produce the image.

I am getting long winded (again ... sorry), but the point (pun intended), is that the first painting that I have started that I know I will finish is being done in pointillistic style. So, after all this time of noting how tedious colored pencil work is, I am now doing point after point after point on a big canvas (30 x 40).

But, believe it or not, I have found it to have gone much more quickly than I thought it would; and, secondly, the process has been very calming -- almost Zen-like. I understand why Seurat tended toward larger canvases. The bigger canvas is necessary in order to provide the viewer's eyes a greater opportunity to blend colors.

With that in mind, the following is the progression I have made with the pointillism painting I have been working on. This is being done with acrylic paint. (The fact that this is lengthy is primarily because I can't get the blog to cooperate in lining up the images three in a row. And if someone can explain to me how to do this more efficiently I will be in your debt forever).

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

Image 6 - As of 8/27/13

Since the painting has to be turned in for a contest by Sept. 10, then it will be done by then! And, quite frankly, at the rate it is progressing, I should be able to finish it with time to spare for more noodling, tinkering ... and adding a few dots here and there.

I will explain more about the contest for the Loveland Historical Museum in my next blog posting, which -- hopefully -- will be next week.