David Hockney Summer Swimmers

David Hockney, John St. Claire Swimming, 1972

(lesson notes: This lesson is from a lovely Australian art blog, Use Your Coloured Pencils, and the original post is here).

About the Artist: David Hockney (b. 1937) is an English Artist, considered by many to be England's most influential contemporary artist. He studied at the Royal Academy in London, and moved to California in 1964. During this time he made a series of paintings with swimmers that have become iconic pop art images. As the kids look at the paintings in this brief slideshow, encourage discussion and looking by asking open ended questions like, "what do you notice?" "what more can you find?" "what makes you say that?" Perhaps deepen the discussion by asking the kids about how you paint something that is constantly moving, like sunlight on water? (For more information on David Hockney, here's a quick article from the Tate)

Materials:
large drawing paper, sharpies, oil pastels, blue liquid watercolor + water to dilute, dixie cups, foam brushes (or large paintbrushes)

Activity:
On the drawing paper, ask the children to imagine themselves swimming, and then draw themselves with the oil pastels. Encourage them to make the drawing quite large, using a LOT of the paper (the tendency is often to make a teeny tiny little person on the big paper).  When they finish their drawing, have them outline their figures with sharpies for contrast... this step makes a big difference in their finished product. Then, have them use a white oil pastel to make squiggles all around their figure, and finally, use a bit of blue liquid watercolor diluted with water in a dixie cup to paint the paper around the swimmer. The white oil pastel will resist the watercolor, making a shimmery water effect. (Another variation is to sprinkle a bit of salt on the wet watercolored paper, but if you do this, make sure you are using a thicker watercolor paper rather than drawing paper).