Battyeford Primary Art, Craft & Design

David Hockney Inspired - Environments (Water)

Year 5 have been looking at the theme of Rivers and Water. In Art, Craft and Design we have taken our inspiration from the Malibu 1980's seascapes and landscapes by David Hockney, one of Britain's best known contemporary artists. Over Hockney's career he has often been inspired by the landscape and his visual ideas have sometimes spread in to design for Opera stage sets. This notion of creating 'environment' from 2D imagery has been explored in class by creating forms that provide a relief element to our finished artworks. The pupils ideas have been amazing and some really sophisticated results are emerging as we come near to completing these images.

First of all we tested ideas relating to Hockney's colour, form, pattern and texture in our sketchbooks...

Next we worked on A4 card backgrounds with inks, oil pastels and felt tip pens to create a random pattern with inserts of patterns/marks inspired by Hockney's landscapes and seascapes.

These were then blown up on the photocopier to A3. Now the student had an A3 colour copy and an A4 original from which to form their environments. The hardest part was adjusting the card backgrounds to marry with the already prepared sheets, continually adding more decorated, inked and drawn sections to work alongside their imagery. Here are some pictures showing us working as we developed this approach...

We are nearing completion and the finished works are really something...shall we develop now with photography or build something larger??? The children may decide... Take a look at our work so far. We think it is stunning! Well done Year 5!