Modified Pointillism: The Story Behind the Art

Jan 31, 2023

THE STORY BEHIND THE ART:
Each painting has its own story, but today I will be sharing a bit about my highly textured modified pointillism painting.


Believe it or not,I created this original oil painting in the car while Tim drove us up to Wisconsin to look at a River Pool we were thinking about purchasing.


It was a 3 hour drive, so I thought I would have plenty of time to sit still and do something creative.
I had not factored in the winding highways when we got started. The roads weren’t as straight and smooth as the interstate.


That meant I either needed a change of plans, or get car sick!
My solution was to do a modified pointillism painting, using painting straight from the tube.


HERE’s HOW I CREATED IT:


1. No pre mixing the colors
2. Making sure each dot of paint has white space around it.
3. Choose colors that represent the flowers blooming in Iowa and Wisconsin in late August.
4. Apply the paint by sticking a tiny tipped clay sculpting tool right in the tube.
5. Work with one color at a time, so you don’t have to keep switching between tubes…. less risk for getting oil paint all over the van!
6. Wipe excess paint off the clay tool with paper towel every now and then to make sure paint is only at the tip of the tool.
7. Carefully, and barely lightly touch the canvas with the paint.….while praying you don’t hit a bump at the same time!
8. Control your body so that it absorbs the bumps of the road while you’re aiming for the canvas. It’s a workout! And a lot like meditation!
9. Make sure to clean the tool before switching colors.
10. Dot in a horizontal pattern to emulate the rolling hills and sky.
11. Do this for 3 hours straight, and then pray it gets home safely because it takes about a month to dry!


The beautiful thing about this style, (learned from reading about how George Seurat created his famous paintings), is that the color mixing is done by the person viewing the art! The further you step away from the piece, the more your brain mixes the colors!


In Seurat’s pointillism works (such as, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte) he used uniform dots of paint next to each other, rather than blending them physically with a brush. He believed this technique would result in more vividly colored and powerful paintings. I think he was right!