How to Make Pumpkin Art with Pointillism for Fall

Inside: Connect fall and all things pumpkin to fine art and pointillism with dots and this pumpkin art with Pointillism.

The days are getting shorter and crisper and I pulled out my cozy slippers.

Fall is upon us.

And in my family that means apple picking and pumpkin patches and hay rides with friends…we always put those activities on our Family Bucket List.

We lean into fall because it also includes apple pie, apple cider donuts, and pumpkin-flavored everything.

But we also love the fall holidays and decorating with all things pumpkins.

We sew pumpkins on meat trays like I used to do when I was a kid.

We save a pumpkin from carving and turn it into a Gratitude Pumpkin that becomes our centerpiece on our table all through November.

And we do this Fall Kindness Challenge and give people these Gratitude Kindness Notes.

But we were looking for another way to celebrate the pumpkins we have all around our house besides eating pumpkin spice Cheerios (my son’s favorite) and pumpkin spice lattes (my favorite).

So I busted out some Q-tips, paint and a canvas and my old art history book to make Pumpkin Art with Pointillism.

What is Pointillism Art?

When I was in college and took the mandated Art History courses, I discovered and then fell in love with Pointillism.

Maybe it’s because it reminded me of those Hidden Magic Eye Puzzles from the 90s.

My professor showed us a tiny, zoomed-in piece of art and all we saw was dots.

Little tiny dots.

Then he zoomed it out to the gloriousness that is A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

And once I saw the painting hanging in the Art Insitute of Chicago, I was sold.

The tiny dots that magically turn into gorgeous art is mesmerizing.

I ran across the street from the museum and bought my tiny daughter the board book, Sunday With Seurat

And when my kids were older, we graduated to these kid-friendly art history books on Seurat.

This awesome YouTube Video of Art with Mati and Dada and Seurat is a great way to further explain Pointillism to our kids.

If you have younger kids who don’t have the fine motor skills for Q-tips, get them these Dot a Dot Art Markers and they can create their own art.

And since we love fall and I love Pointillism, we connected fall and all things pumpkin to pointillism with this pumpkin craft made entirely out of dots.

Want more pumpkin books to connect to this project?

Here are our favorite pumpkin books:

Supplies Needed for the Pumpkin Art with Pointillism:

small canvas or cardstock paper
Q-tips
orange, yellow, green and brown or gold acrylic paint (tempra paint is fine for the cardstock paper)
pencil

How to Make the Pumpkin Art with Pointillism

1. Draw a pumpkin on your canvas, pressing lightly.

2. Dip a Q-tip into the orange paint and one dot at a time, outline the pumpkin.

If you are using acrylic paint, let your kids know it’s “forever paint” for clothes.

And remind your kids not to smear the paint by using the Q-tip like a paintbrush. Instead, show them how they can make tiny dots close together to make it appear like a line was formed.

3. Continue to fill in the pumpkin with orange dots. This takes patience, depending on how big your canvas is.

4. Use brown or gold paint to fill in the stem with a fresh Q-tip.

5. Use green paint to dot in some grass so it doesn’t look like your pumpkin is floating. You can add a little green stem from where the pumpkin was attached to the vine.