Easy Fall Tree Pointillism Art (Fall Leaf Week)

Art is such an important part of education. It builds creativity, confidence, imagination, fine motor skills, and so much more. Plus, it’s fun! We happened to walk into the library on the right day to grab the kids’ make-and-take kit and it was for Fall Tree Pointillism Art. As soon as Cam finished one painting, he asked me to cobble together our own supplies so he could make more.

Supplies to Create Tree Pointillism Art

You’ll need:

• brown construction paper
• white paper
• scissors
• pencil
• cotton swabs (one for each color of paint)
• paint in fall colors, such as red, orange, yellow and brown

Pretty straightforward supplies! We find most of ours at the dollar store or Target/Meijer.

Teachable Moment: What is Pointillism?

As long as I’m showing Camden a new type of art, I’m going to give him a short education alongside.

Pointillism is making art using tiny dots to create the picture. An artist named George Seurat was the first person to become known for pointillism. You can show your child his most famous painting here (there’s closeups of the pointillism technique!).

Read a Leaf Book

We read Fletcher and the Falling Leaves before we created our Fall Tree Pointillism Art. In this book, Fletcher is an adorable young fox who is so worried that his tree isn’t feeling well, because its leaves start changing colors and falling off. He keeps trying to reattach the leaves, before learning what fall is about, and what beautiful surprise comes next.

Any book that features the leaves turning colors is a great introduction to this art project, because kids just need to understand that the green leaves change to shades of red, brown, yellow and orange.

Creating Fall Tree Pointillism Art

First, trace your child’s hand and arm onto a piece of brown construction paper. Cut it out (or have your child cut it out). This will be the branches and trunk of your tree.

Glue the tree to the white paper.

Using a cotton swab, dip it into one color of paint and make dots of paint all around the top of the tree. Repeat with as many colors as you’d like. You can use one color, or multiple colors. Cam used green too, because he said not all the leaves had changed.

You can also dot leaves falling down from the tree and gathering on the ground. Let your kids get creative and have fun! Cam added dinosaur confetti, because why not? haha.

If your child is older, they could experiment with smaller dots as well. Use a bobby pin or a toothpick to make small and smaller dots. Show them how to put a few tiny dots together to make a larger one.

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Enjoy this activity? Make sure you check out all the Fall Leaf Week activities:

• Fall Leaf Pointillism Art (this post)
• We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt (free printable labels + book)
• 15+ Picture Books About Fall Leaves
• Fall Leaf Paintings