Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Barbara Roman, left, helps a group of children taking part in a youth arts program at the Carnegie Library in Ironwood Tuesday afternoon. Painters include, clockwise from right, Zack Panek, Lily Nelson, Kyra Cramer, Rachel Holzhauer and Jacinta Lauzon.
By LARRY HOLCOMBE
Ironwood - Barbara Roman offered a group of 10 aspiring young artists a look into pointillism at the Carnegie Library in Ironwood Tuesday afternoon.
She showed the youngsters examples of the painting technique developed by Frenchman Georges Seurat in the late 19th century. Growing from impressionism, the technique uses little dots of color that when viewed from further away reveal a picture of something grander than a bunch of little dots.
The children were provided an array of bright colored paints on a pallet and small stick to use to make little dots of paint on their white paper. They worked quietly on the big table in the library's reading room as Roman circled the table a few times to answer questions, provide encouragement and offer more paint.
The kids chose their own subjects and colors. There were many brightly colored pieces by the time they were done, including a cat, a giraffe and a fish.
Roman told the class the exercise was "all about expressing yourself and artistic license." At the end of the hour, she presented each painter with a small identification card, labeled "Artistic License."
This was second in a series of four youth art sessions to be led by Roman at the library. The next session will be July 10.
Seurat's most famous work is "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" that shows a group of 19th folks on the grass along the River Seine in Paris. The oil on canvas hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
