Analysis of 'Portrait of Mother Iii'

Analysis of ‘Portrait of Mother III’ by David Hockney.

David Hockney painted his mother many times after studying art at the Bradford school of art. I am not sure that this specific painting provides a story but maybe the whole group of paintings of his mother at different times and in different styles does tell a story. I think that he wanted to show how people aged and how you can paint or draw them in different styles of materials. His mother is the main focus of this series of portraits. The image can be interpreted as quite plain and boring. He maybe is trying to say that that his mother is ill and as people get older they become slower and less agile so in his eyes boring and simple. I think that the Hockney is expressing is opinions about his mum being ill and fragile and also the dark feint colours which could mean that he is sad and depressed about the condition of his mother. This piece of work is not consistent with Hockney’s other work. Hockney is usually renowned for big and bright paintings. When I went to his summer exhibition some of his work was over three times bigger than me and also the colours were like poster paint, they were so bright. On the other hand this painting is quite grey and watery. In some of his other paintings of his mother he was influenced by cubism and Pablo Picasso by distorting the face a lot. In this painting I think Hockney has used a fountain pen and ink or pencils, I’m not sure. Again he is going against his normal use of bright coloured paints. He might of used lines and not filled in the face and hair to show that she is not what she used to be