A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
by George-Pierre Seurat
1884-1886
oil on canvas
Found at the Art Institute of Chicago
Georges Seurat [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
This week I spent most of my time preparing a Pointillism project for one of Lucy’s classes. I wanted to use Seurat’s La Grande Jatte but having the kids draw the entire painting was out of the question. So I took a small corner of the painting and adjusted it to the abilities of 8-12 year-old boys. We also wanted them to have the experience of “painting” with dots, so I decided to have them use watercolor and Q-tips (I saw this technique on several painting blogs).
Below is the resulting project that you can download for free. Lucy’s boys are painting it today, so hopefully I will have their results to show you next week.
All you need for the project is some heavy paper (watercolor or multimedia drawing paper works best — you could also use index paper or card stock), a pencil, a box of Crayola watercolors (or another brand), water, paper towels, a handful of Q-tips and a willing student.
If your students try this, I’d love to see their results!
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