One style that just crossed my mind is where they do the entire thing with many small dots of paint. Up close its just paint spatters on canvas but as you back away the image comes into view. Now that I can appreciate for the planning involved to get the image right. (Haven't an idea of what the style/technique is called) Pointillism, and it's not entirely suprising that it should appeal to an engineer - Georges Seurat, the most famous pointillist, spent a good deal of time studying the (then new) science of color theory and perception. Seurat's best known work is his A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884):
Of course, this hardly does justice to the painting - the original is 8 feet by 10 feet and took him two years to complete. It's on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, next time you're in town ;)
Great comments about Pointilism. You beat me to it. Like Gauguin, the Pointilists like Seurat are also Post-Impressionists and have more solid form and more eternal, long lasting compositions. These people seem like they are going to be here forever (even the little girl hopping on one foot.) And it is MUCH more awesome to see its huge size in person.
I like the connection to engineers. I'll have to see if my engineer friends like it better than other, more loose forms of art.