Point the way, Seurat

George Seurat's pointillism introduced a whole new way of making art, and many artists have either replicated his style or put their own new twist on it. To the right is an example of Seurat's work, "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte". One can click on the image to view all of its details, including the tiny dots that make up the picture. Pointillism is characterized by small dots that blend together when viewed from far away. Generally, one wouldn't have to stand back to far in order for the dots to blend together simply because the dots were not very big. The modern artist Chuck Close took Seurat's idea of pointillism and played around with it.  Close decided to make the dots significantly larger so that they are not disguised. He also put smaller dots within bigger dots, creating little targets of color that draw in the viewer. Some of his works are hard to decipher from arms length, and the viewer must really step back.

Close up... What is it?

Ohhhh

Chuck Close also uses a lot of bright colors, I think because of the 90's influence when neon colors were considered hip. Below is a picture of him working on one of his portraits. He usually paints portraits. To go to his website, click here.

Other artist have also been influenced by Seurat's art, and many use his technique. This is a video of a portrait of Opera using pointillism. The caption on the bottom said it took 55 hours! One can also use Photoshop to make a picture look like a pointillist piece. Another artist that developed a style similar to Seurat's is Karen Morgan. She, like Close, uses bigger dots than Seurat used, but she also used clay to give the dots a 3D quality.  The following is a video of her work.