Pre-Pointillism History
Pointillism has existed in some form or variation for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Long before Claude Monet and the Impressionists or Georges Seurat and the Neo-Impressionists thought of it, there existed mosaics, which were used as early as 3000 BC in Mesopotamia. While they’re not paintings, it is an art form that certainly operates on the very same visual principles as pointillism.

The Creation of Pointillism - A Little History
The Impressionists found that objects, shapes, and scenes do not contain big flat consistent areas of a single color but a variety of colors which make up shadows, medium colored and light colored areas. So, the Impressionists began using smaller brushstrokes of similar and dissimilar color to paint objects and forms in their effort to infuse all this color into their works in an attempt to mimic all this light and color they saw in nature. This is referred to as broken color.
In the early 1880's, Georges Seurat worked out a more methodical and "scientifically" based approach to applying all the broken color in his work. Thus arose the Neo-Impressionists and the technique called Divisionism (Pointillism). Seurat died very early on, and then Paul Signac, Seurats friend and fellow pointillist picked up and carried the ball from there. For me, Paul Signac is really the true master.

My Experience
I painted my very first pointillist piece in watercolors, in 1975, a mere 40 years after Paul Signac finished his last pointillist piece, ironically, in watercolors. While I've worked in other styles, techniques, and mediums, I have always ended up going back to this amazing technique, painting hundreds and hundreds of pointillist works.
I paint using dots for several reasons.
First, I honestly think that over the years, it’s just gotten into my blood.
Second, pointillism has allowed me to develop a unique and distinctive style. Some people may not like my style, but they at least know my style!
Third, I there are several key features that are unique to pointillism, that I enjoy using. For example, the core concept behind pointillism is, the primary one being Optical Mixing.
Optical Mixing is based on a natural phenomenon in human physiology of the eye. To be honest, it’s a whole Gestalt thing. The human eye, at certain distances, actually blends the colors it perceives, and creates another distinct color altogether. It's the reason a forest covered mountainside with its patchwork of green, brown, gold, violet, yellows, reds, and so on, at a distance, mixed with a little atmosphere, are a blue gray 50 miles away!
Using the same phenomenon, pointillism's dots blend at about 5-6 feet away from the viewer. In fact, Seurat and Signac calculated the optimum distance to stand from a given pointillist painting to achieve the Optical Mixing he was striving to attain. I estimate that 5-6 feet works out to be the ideal distance for my work as well, based on the fact that all my dots are approximately the same size (3/16") regardless of how large a canvas I paint.
Finally, I find that I have a tremendous amount of control over shapes, forms and lighting when I use pointillism. 

How I Create A Pointillist Painting
There is no other painting style that is as obvious in its actual production as is pointillism. Every painting is done pretty much, one dot at a time. It’s all done one layer of dots at a time. Of course, I've developed techniques and methods to speed up some of the processes I use; I have also designed some "tools" to help in deciding color schemes. But for the most part, it's all done one dot at a time.

 Ed McCarthy

Updated Jan. 28, 2010