In the past, we’ve marveled at the magnificent, minutely detailed work of Xavier Casalta. Lucky for us, the French artist is back with more plant-inspired pointillism. Much like last year’s Autumn, his new piece, Winter, is rendered in a stippling technique that captures the natural beauty of the season’s distinctive vegetation.
A collage of holly leaves, pine cones, and seasonal flowers like roses and lilies, Winter is an ode to plants that thrive in cold conditions. From a distance, the black-and-white piece appears to be a traditional drawing rooted in realism. Upon closer inspection, however, its pointillistic style reveals itself. Composed entirely of tiny, perfectly placed dots—8 million, to be exact—Winter is equally a stippled work of art and labor of love.
In an email, Casalta tells us that the project ultimately required 400 hours of inking. This ample effort and dedication is nothing new for Casalta, however, as the completion of Autumn also called for a similar timeframe. “Fun fact,” the artist announces on Instagram, “I create more than 200,000 dots a day, almost a million and a half a week.” Talk about a dedication to drawing!
As excerpts from his Four Seasons series, both Autumn and Winter were done in collaboration with Swallows & Damsons, a Sheffield-based florist. If you’d like to see the pain-staking process behind each piece, be sure to check out Caslta’s Instagram, where he regularly posts progress shots of his stunning portfolio.
See details of Casalta’s Winter pointillism below!
Xavier Casalta: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Behance