Artist in the Window: David Esson
Description
In the second of our ‘Artist in the Window’ series, we are delighted to welcome our Featured Artist David Esson who will be showing us how he creates his fantastic pointillist and stippling pieces.
Pointillism was a part of Neo-Impressionism, a movement in French painting of the late 19th century that reacted against the empirical realism of Impressionism by relying on systematic calculation and scientific theory to achieve predetermined visual effects.
Neo-Impressionism was led by Georges Seurat, who was its original theorist and most significant artist, and by Paul Signac, also an important artist and the movement’s major spokesman.
The term pointillism originated in descriptions of Seurat’s painting technique, in which paint was applied to the canvas in dots of contrasting pigment. A calculated arrangement of coloured dots, based on optical science, was intended to be perceived by the retina as a single hue. The entire canvas was covered with these dots, which defined form without the use of lines and bathed all objects in an intense, vibrating light. In each picture the dots were of a uniform size, calculated to harmonize with the overall size of the painting. In place of the hazy forms of Impressionism, those of Neo-Impressionism had solidity and clarity and were simplified to reveal the carefully composed relationships between them. Though the light quality was as brilliant as that of Impressionism, the general effect was of immobile, harmonious monumentality, a crystallization of the fleeting light of Impressionism.
Stippling is a technique that incorporates several small circles or dots in the same colour to create a composition. These dots can be drawn, painted, or etched onto a surface using a variety of mediums.
Stippling dots group together to create a recognizable image. The closer you are to the image, the more you’ll be able to pick out individual dots. As you step further away, you might not be able to recognize the stippling effect because you’ll see a complete picture instead.
Artists use the stippling technique to create sculptures, engravings, and paintings. Giulio Campagnola first created the process of stippling in 1510. Initially, he mastered this technique for printmaking. Back then, pages were printed in one colour, so images would be printed using stippling to recreate depth. These prints are known as stippling etchings or engravings and are made by engraving several tiny dots onto a metal plate.
David will be in the gallery between 2.30 and 4 pm on Sunday March 12 creating and chatting about his inspiration and technique.
Please do join us to find out more.