Sunset at Ambleteuse Pas De Calais by Theo van Rysselberghe

Did you notice the gritty, bumpy looking texture? It would seem like this was painted on a bumpy canvas, but in truth it was the way it was painted.

This is by a Belgian painter named Theo van Rysselberghe who lived during the late 1800's to the early 1900's. This is what's called a pointillism painting. You're probably wondering, what is pointillism? Pointillism is using smaller dots or brush strokes of primary colors (red, blue, green) to create a bigger image of blended secondary colors when seen from afar. Those smaller dots come together and blend, creating an overall painting. This is similar to pixels on a computer, and how those small pixels blend together so that zoomed out, create an image.

To use a technique such as pointillism takes a significant amount of patience and skill. Creating a simple landscape painting with such a precise technique. Being able to know exactly where to paint your dots or squares of primary colors takes some planning in order to have them blend perfectly. In the painting above, a variety of colors are used to create a gradient of different tones and hues. When you squint from afar, you can't even see the dots used to create this painting. I think this is one of the really cool things about pointillism, and how smaller things come together to create something even bigger.


To learn more about Theo van Rysselberghe:
http://www.abcgallery.com/P/pointillism/rysselberghebio.html
To see where his paintings are shown, please visit this site:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/gallery/rysselberghe_theo_van.html