Seurat Pointillism Melted Crayon Art for Kids

Make famous artists and their art technique come alive for kids with fun art project for kids! This pointillism for kids art project helps kids explore the technique George Seurat began in the late 1800s. This crayon art for kids is perfect for kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, and grade 6 students. All you need is a canvas (any size) and crayons!

George Seurat for kids

Seurat was a French artist who lived from Dec 2, 1859 to March 29, 1891. This post-Impressionist artist is best known for beginning the painting technique known as pointillism. Some of  his most famous paintings include the HUGE A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jattee (people of each social class relaxing in a park), Bathers at Asnières (men swimming and relaxing along the Seine River in France), and The Eiffel Tower to name a few. While many of his masterpieces are in the Orsay Museum in Paris, there are various at major art galleries around the world including a large one at the Chicago Art Museum.

 

Pointillism for kids

I loved going to the Orsay in Paris as a child where I got to see his beautiful Pointilism paintings!  The basics of a Pointilism painting is a whole bunch of dots that up close doesn’t look like much, but when you look back at the whole work your eye blends the dots together to see a picture. Cool, huh?! Seurat saw the Science in it and was trying to maximize light and feeling in his pictures. It took him 2 years to paint the picture with all the umbrellas below! This type of art is not only a neat style to talk about with kids, but something most kids really get excited about trying themselves!

We love melting crayons at our house!! So I came up with this project to help Goofy better visualize a Pointilism painting since we don’t live in Paris where we could see it first hand =-) We chopped up crayons (already small nubs).

Art projects based on famous artists

We placed them on a small canvas, spaced out, to make Goofy’s pictures of a castle. (He placed them & picked the colors) This is (kinda) what a pointilism painting looks like up close – lots of dots and you can’t tell what the picture looks like yet.

Melted crayon art for kids

Then we put his artwork on a cookie sheet in a preheated 250 F oven for 20 seconds & TADA! Can you see the castle, blue rounded door, yellow flags, and nighttime sky now? Goofy was amazed at how his picture blended & came to life – just like Seurat’s (sorta) pictures when you stand back to appreciate the beauty of the entire piece.

Crayon art for kids

I think one of the reasons I love Pointilism so much is it reminds me of our lives. When we look up close at our day-to-day lives sometimes it is hard to understand why things happy or what God has in mind. But when we can step back (as truly only God can do) and see the big picture it all comes together to make a beautiful picture.

Favorite Art Books on Seurat for Kids

Looking for a couple good books to learn about George Seurat? These are our favorites.

Grab our artist report to help kids write down what they learn about famous arists and add a picture of their art project to make a fun keepsake of their homeschool art appreciation class.