A summer Sunday on an island in the Seine. Couples stroll under parasols. A woman fishes. A man in a cap lies on the grass, smoking a pipe. A little girl in white runs across the grass, and a small monkey on a lead trots beside an elegant lady.
It looks like the laziest afternoon in the world. It took Georges Seurat two years to paint.
Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884–1886. The Art Institute of Chicago
Millions of dots
Seurat was fascinated by the science of colour. Instead of mixing paints on his palette, he placed tiny touches of pure colour side by side, trusting the viewer's eye to blend them. Up close, the grass is dots of green, yellow, blue and even orange. Step back, and it glows.
He went to the island again and again, making dozens of drawings and small oil sketches before he began the large canvas, which is about three metres wide. He even reworked it later, adding a border of painted dots around the edge.
When it was shown at the last Impressionist exhibition in 1886, some visitors laughed. Others realised they were looking at something completely new.
Stillness in a crowd
Look at the people. Almost all of them are in profile, frozen mid-step, like figures on an Egyptian frieze. Nobody looks at anybody else. It's a crowded park, and yet it feels strangely silent, as if time had stopped.
A dot meditation
You only need paper and a felt-tip pen or a pencil.
- Draw a small circle, about the size of a coin.
- Fill it slowly with dots. One dot per breath: in, place a dot; out, lift the pen.
- Don't plan the pattern. Let the dots cluster and spread on their own.
- When your mind wanders, notice it, and come back to the next dot.
- When the circle is full, hold the paper at arm's length and see how the dots become a single shade.
It's a gentle reminder that slow, small gestures add up. For more Parisian afternoons, try the Parisian lunch break or a slow afternoon in the Jardin du Luxembourg.
Small steps, all year
"(letters) On Art" brings each issue of "(meditating) On Art", with stories and slow-looking practices like this one, and a letter every month for the weeks in between.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi