As of this writing—close to 5pm on Wednesday—a person is recreating Georges Seurat's famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte on display in the Art Institute of Chicago... with an Etch-A-Sketch.
That person is Jane Labowitch, an artist who uses the Etch-A-Sketch as her medium. She uses the toy to draw popular Pixar and Nintendo characters, landmarks and portraits.
Here's what Seurat's 1884 painting looks like after two hours of work by Labowitch.
Spending my Wednesday at @artinstitutechi etching some #seurat ... here's the WIP! about 2 hours in. pic.twitter.com/NzvNqCS6lF
— PrincessEtchASketch (@PrincessEtch) February 17, 2016
So far I have been having a lovely Wednesday. Time to etch this one off my bucket list!
Posted by Princess Etch A Sketch on Wednesday, February 17, 2016
You can buy prints of Labowitch's work on her Etsy page, or follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
Now, for a little background on the painting. It's both Seurat's largest work and his most popular, likely because the technique he used to paint it. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte utilized a technique called Pointillism, where colored dots are used to create a larger image. In addition to being one of his earliest publicly shared paintings, it was also his most famous. The painting now hangs in the Art Institute's European Paint and Sculpture Gallery and is part of the museum's permanent collection. Grab your Etch-A-Sketch and start practicing!
