Advance Painting
Assignment 4
Landscape with Impressionism and or Pointillism
Student example
Impressionism was a late 19th century art movement that began as a loose connection of Paris-based artists who began
publicly displaying their art in the 1860s. The name of the movement is derived from Claude Monet's Impression,
Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant). Critic Louis Leroy unintentionally coined the term in a satiric review published in
Le Charivari. Characteristics of Impressionist painting include visible brushstrokes, light colors, open composition,
emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), commonplace subject
matter, and odd visual angles.
Pointillism is a style of painting in which non-primary colors are generated by the visual mixing of points of primary
colors placed very close to each other. The process is also known as Divisionism. This technique was in contrast to
current methods of creating non-primary colors, including mixing pigment in the palette or using pigments out of a
tube. When viewed from a distance, the points or dots cannot be distinguished, and blend optically into each other. This
means that with the same set of primaries, pointillists generate a different range of colors when compared to artists
using traditional colors or color-mixing techniques. The result is sometimes described as optical color mixing since the
eye does the mixing and not the brush.
Image 1: Create 4 (2” x 2”) simple overlapping techniques of optical color mixing. Think about the direction, density
and size of the brush strokes. Examples of color combinations that you might consider are: monochromatic color,
complementary color, analogous color, earthy or grayed color etc. Use watercolor paper and mount in you sketch book.
Please glue these color studies into your sketch book. See below and next page for examples.
Complements colors
Orange and blue with yellow orange
Analogous colors
Think about the direction of mark making (brush stroke)
yellow green, green and blue green
Over lapping of color with red under color
color wheel using pointillism
Darker under colors
soft edge strokes
Student example with painterly brush work (broken mark making)
Image 2: In this impressionism/ pointillism landscape painting you will be incorporating a painterly
(broken mark making) style.
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat (pointillism)
Water lilies, Claude Monet (Impressionism)
Students stretching a canvas
Student example
Materials: acrylic paint, 16” x 20”or (larger?*) primed stretched canvas
* Consult with professor for larger size
For your sketch book:
a. Create two pencil studies before you start painting.
Is it essential to plan a painting in thorough detail before you start, or should you let it develop as you go
along? Planning a painting can be a help as you know exactly what you're going to do, but it could also
inhibit spontaneity. Letting a painting evolve as you work is very free and lets you be spontaneous, but also
leaves you open to the possibility that the painting won't go anywhere and you'll end up with a mess.
Ultimately the degree to which you plan out a painting depends on your personality; some people find it
essential and others a hindrance. But regardless of how detailed you like to plan (or not), there are several
decisions that have to be made before you to start to paint.
b. Take a 4” x 6” digital image of the final painting and place (glue) into the sketch book. Make sure your
digital image is in focus, squared off and color and value are comparable to original painting.
c. Describe your painting in a typed paragraph and place (glue) into your sketch book. You will make
observations about what you see. You must be objective. For this part please make no inferences or express
opinions. You are going to create a list of what you see. List only the facts about the artwork and write a
paragraph base on this list:
Subject matter: abstracted or simplifies objects
Medium: acrylic,
Style: impressionism, pointillism,
Technique: opaque, transparent, painterly, combination, etc
d. Analyze your painting in a typed paragraph and place (glue) into your sketch book. How do you
compose or design (organize) your painting? This is where your knowledge of the elements of design and
the principles of design play an important role. The combinations of these, elements and principles help the
artist create the mood of the work or express a particular point of view or message. Base this paragraph on
this list:
Design elements: line, shape, value, color, size, direction, texture, focal point
Design Principles: repetition and rhythm, dominance and subordination, unity and variety,
contrast, balance, emphasis, scale and proportion
Student Examples:
Pointillism process, Student example