Hockney Underwater Portraits

No artist captured the thrill of the quick plunge, or leisurely submersion, quite like David Hockney.  He was born in England in 1937  and ended up moving to California in the early 60s- which started his infatuation with swimming pools.  He was inspired to create a series of paintings of swimming pools which was fuelled by the sea, sun, colors and a certain form of luxury. The Californian swimming pool remained one of his main painting themes ever since.   After viewing various examples of his work and inspiration students set out to create their own pool pictures in the form of an underwater self portrait.  Students colored their portraits using oil crayons and then applied a water color resist to fill in the water.