Flatiron Sunrise: Upcycled Pointillism

For my upcycle project, I created the piece Flatiron Sunrise, shown in the featured image. This piece is of the pointillist aesthetic, created using many dots of color punched from upcycled materials. 

Pointillist Aesthetic

Pointillism is a “painting technique in which small distinct points of unmixed color are applied in patterns to form an image” [1]. This technique was developed by French artists Georges-Pierre Seurat and Paul Signac during the late 19th century, starting what we now know as the Neo-Impressionist movement [2]. Neo-Impressionism reacted against the empirical realism of impressionism, relying on scientific theories of color to achieve visual effects [3]. “Whereas the Impressionist painters spontaneously recorded nature in terms of the fugitive effects of color and light, the Neo-Impressionists applied scientific optical principles of light and color to create strictly formalized compositions” [3].  One of the more important scientific principles that pointillism relies upon is optical mixing. This technique relies upon the ability of the eye of the viewer to blend spots of colors into a fuller range of tones [2]. This is analogous to how CMYK printing or pixel displays work, tiny dots of color are shown closely enough together so that the eye interprets them as combinations of the base colors [2]. “This [creates] greater apparent luminosity because the optical mixing of colors tends towards white, unlike mixing of paints on the palette which tends towards black and reduces intensity” [4]. To create a technique in the pointillist aesthetic, one must use many points of primary colors, placing them to take advantage of optical mixing, creating a work that shows a wider range of tones than are present in the primary colors used.  The piece shown below A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat is often credited as a founding work of the pointillist technique, and demonstrates the technique well. We can see how the use of points to construct the piece is able to create a wide range of bright tones from primary colors using optical mixing. 

By Georges Seurat – https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-dance/2016/09/01/huntington-two-georges-one-sondheim/OR1D4DPM8GsME67aXEjWiP/story.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11500785

Inspirations

I took inspiration from several places in creating Flatiron Sunrise. Technique wise, I was drawn to several pointillist pieces. Shown below are two of my favorites, this first, Femmes au puits, painted by Paul Signac drew me because of its use of saturated colors. I really enjoy the effect that he was able to create using deep yellows, blues, and greens. While the colors may not be exact to life, they create an effect of exaggeration, highlighting the beauty of the scene. This also shows the effect of optical mixing as described above, where the pointillist technique is able to create brighter colors than standard paint mixing. In my own work I was attempting to create similar effects in my use of pointillism.

Par Paul Signac — Image and original data provided by Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives/ART RESOURCE, N.Y., Domaine public, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=489640

The second, Morning, Interior, by Maximilien Luce again shows the intense brightness that can be achieved with the optical mixing of pointillism. I like this piece because of how well it is able to show the light streaming into the room. This aspect of light and shadow is important to the composition of my chosen reference image, discussed below. Seeing how this piece was able to create such descriptive beams of light inspired me that I would be possible to do the same in my own work. 

By Maximilien Luce – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17870580

My main inspiration for the composition of the piece was the photo Flatirons Winter Sunrise, shown below. This image is a panoramic landscape photograph of the Flatirons during a winter sunrise, taken by Jesse Varner. I knew that I wanted to use an image of the flatirons to create my piece and this image drew me in with its sharp shadows and golden tones, both of which I felt fit well with the pointillism and Neo-Impressionist aesthetic.

Taken by Jesse Varner. Edited by Schcambo (see also Schcambo). – Self-made photo.Originally uploaded on 2006-04-19 by Molas. Uploaded edit 2007-12-21 by Schcambo., CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3259499

Fabrication Process and Materials

Flatiron Sunrise was created using dots, or “points” punched out of a variety of materials. As shown below, I used a ¼’ hole punch to stamp out dots of various materials, mostly scrap construction paper, but also plastic scraps and various pieces of junk mail and cardboard. With this range of materials I was able to create dots of many different colors that would then be used to create the piece.

In order to create the actual piece I first printed out my reference/inspiration image with an overlaid grid. This grid  ended up being quite useful for large swatches of color, and to help me see the different colors and shades in the original image to correctly place the dots of color.

Using this printed sheet as a reference, I was then able to begin construction. The actual process was simple, but time intensive. I would cut out many dots to be used, then glued them to the sheet one at a time to create my piece.

Final Product

The image above show the final product Flatiron Sunrise. Overall, I am very happy with how this piece met the functional goals of the pointillist aesthetic. I was able to create a coherent image using many points of un-mixed color. I wasn’t able to keep exact count, but the piece is constructed of at least 5000 individual dots of color. I was able to reflect the shadows and warm colors that I had wanted to replicate from the source image. However, I do think there is a lot of room for improvement in the level of “optical mixing” that I was able to achieve. I think the best example would be the differentiation of shades of grey between the shadows on the rock of the mountain versus the trees in shadow on the right. In the source image, these are two distinct shades of grey, which adds depth to the composition. In my piece, I was not able to create a strong differentiation between these two shades. In a true pointillism piece this could have been achieved through optical mixing. I attempted to do the same by adding points of black to what should have been the darker grey, which was mildly successful, but I think the dots are too large to convincingly trick the eye and create a true darker tone. This could probably be remedied by using smaller dots. That being said, I was quite proud of the level of detail, and optical mixing I was able to achieve in the streaks of orange on the left side of the image, running down the mountain. These streaks of color do a good job off adding detail to the piece, and creating the illusion of more warm white tone in the surrounding white dots. On the whole I am very pleased with how this met the functional and aesthetic goals of pointillism. Going forward, I am planning to frame the piece and hang it up in my office. I think if I were to do this again, I would use smaller dots to construct the piece, although this would add a significant amount of time and effort to its creation.  

 

Sources:

[1] “Pointillism.” MoMA, https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/pointillism. Accessed 19 February 2025.

[2] Wikipedia contributors. “Pointillism.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 31 Jan. 2025. Web. 19 Feb. 2025.

[3] Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Neo-Impressionism”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 May. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/art/Neo-Impressionism. Accessed 29 January 2025.

[4] Wikipedia contributors. “Neo-Impressionism.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 Nov. 2024. Web. 20 Feb. 2025

Images:

By Georges Seurat – https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-dance/2016/09/01/huntington-two-georges-one-sondheim/OR1D4DPM8GsME67aXEjWiP/story.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11500785

Par Paul Signac — Image and original data provided by Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives/ART RESOURCE, N.Y., Domaine public, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=489640

By Maximilien Luce – Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17870580

Taken by Jesse Varner. Edited by Schcambo (see also Schcambo). – Self-made photo.Originally uploaded on 2006-04-19 by Molas. Uploaded edit 2007-12-21 by Schcambo., CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3259499

All other images are my own work.