Lesson 2 – Events
The ArmadA Paintings,
anthony oakshEtt
TEACHER BACKGROUND NOTES
About
The Armada paintings project is one of the largest
art commissions in recent years for the Houses
of Parliament. The pictures hang in the Prince’s
Chamber in the House of Lords and complete the
decoration of that room.
The set of six paintings are based on a series of
10 tapestries, commissioned by the commander
of the English fleet, Lord Howard of Effingham, to
celebrate the English victory in 1588.The tapestries
hung in the House of Lords Chamber for over 180
years until they were destroyed in the fire of 1834.
In the 1730s a set of engravings of the tapestries
had been made which recorded the designs in
detail and these survived.
When the new Palace was built in the mid 19th
century it was decided that this iconic moment in
British history should be included in the scheme
of decoration. The first painting in the series of six
was commissioned from the artist Richard
Burchett. Unfortunately the other five paintings
were never completed.
Following a generous donation to the House of
Lords in 2007 a paper was presented on the history
of the Armada tapestries to the House of Lords
Works of Art Committee who were enthusiastic
to complete the scheme.
The artist Anthony Oakshett was commissioned
to undertake the massive task of completing the
series. He brought together a team of five artists
and the five canvases, each measuring 3.6 x 4.3m,
took two and a half years to complete. They were
installed, along with Burchett’s painting, in their
permanent position in the Prince’s Chamber in
2010.
The artist
Anthony Oakshett studied at Bournemouth and
Poole College of Art and then studied Architecture
and History of Art at Christ’s College, Cambridge,
He was first commissioned as an artist whilst he
was still studying at Cambridge and his skills as
both a portrait painter and painter of large scale
canvases have been in high demand since.
After his time in Cambridge he moved to London
in the early 1980s working in a studio in Chelsea
until 2007 – the same year he was appointed by
the House of Lords to paint the Armada paintings.
He then moved to a much larger studio at Wrest
Park, Bedfordshire. He now has a smaller studio
in Wrest Park where he continues to work as an
artist.
Enter the
competition
Why not enter the work
of your class into the Art
House competition with
the chance of having their
artwork displayed in
Parliament? You’ll find full
details of how to enter the
competition on the Art
House website –
www.parliament.uk/
arthouse
parliament.uk/education
Lesson 2 – Events
The ArmadA Paintings,
anthony oakshEtt
The event
The paintings tell the story of the defeat of the
Spanish Armada in the summer of 1588; the famous
battle between the Spanish ships of Phillip II and
the English ships of Elizabeth I.
King Phillip II of Spain wanted Mary Queen of
Scots to become Queen of England as they both
shared the same religion – they were Catholic,
but Elizabeth I was Protestant. Elizabeth I wanted
Mary to be executed and when Phillip II heard this
he sent his Armada to attack England.
The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon (now in
Portugal) in May 1588 to invade England.
Preparing the Armada had taken the Spanish two
years. There were 130 ships, made up of large
vessels suitable for carrying land cannons and
ammunition, and smaller vessels. By comparison
the English fleet was prepared with great haste and
even though they outnumbered the Spanish by 67
ships, the tight formation held by the Spanish fleet
made it difficult to attack.
Concerned at the enormous threat this posed, the
English launched their fire ships. They set boats on
fire and let them drift into the Spanish fleet under
cover of darkness. In confusion and panic, the
Spanish fled but were hampered by bad weather
conditions. The English commanders’ skill and
knowledge of the waters enabled them to fight the
fiercest battle of the Armada conflict. When the
wind changed, the Spanish fleet managed to flee
north around the East coast of England with the
English fleet pursuing them.
For the Spanish Armada more misfortune was
about to follow. Forced to sail around the north
of Scotland in order to return to Spain, they got
caught in Atlantic gales which sunk a number of
their remaining ships. Only 67 of the original 130
ships made it back to Spain. The victory over the
Spanish was a defining moment in English history.
When the Armada reached the South Coast of
England they were engaged in battle by the English
at Eddystone, off the coast of Devon, and then the
Isle of Portland with two ships taken. When the
Spanish reached the Isle of Wight they created a
temporary base in the protected waters of the
Solent. However the English attacked again forcing
the Spanish back into the open sea. The Armada
had nowhere to go and so headed to Calais on the
coast of France where they were going to pick up
an Army of 30,000 men and transport them across
the channel to England.
parliament.uk/education
Lesson 2 – Events
The ArmadA Paintings,
anthony oakshEtt
LESSON PLANS
You can run lessons using all three approaches
in order – Get started, Get investigating and Get
creative – or choose one or two approaches that
best suit your class’s interest, their ability and the
time you have.
Get started:
Kick off the lesson by watching the short online
film with Lord Crathorne discussing the Armada
paintings: www.parliament.uk/education/
arthouse
Once you’ve watched the film, use one or more of
the talking points below to get your class thinking
about and discussing elements of the work in more
detail:
T
he sea and sky: what do they tell you about
the event? The artist has used different techniques
to capture the different textures of the clouds
in the sky and the shape and movement of the
wave. This was especially important in the
paintings as the weather had played an important
role in the defeat of the Armada.
T
he ships: Look closely at the ships. What
details can you see – for example, what are they
made from, where are the oars, portholes and
masts?
C
an you spot the Spanish and English
ships? – take a look at the flags.
S
ea creatures: Look closely, can you spot
creatures in the sea? They look like fish! These
fish were not related to the Spanish Armada, but
the artist has included them to add interest and
detail to the paintings.
T
he people: Around the edge of the paintings
are portraits of key players on the English side.
As portraits of two of the historical figures
could not be found, in keeping with the artistic
tradition, portraits of the artist and Lord
Crathorne, Chairman of the Works of Art Committee were substituted.
T
he titles: At the bottom of each painting is
the title of the work. Why might the artist have
added these, and how do they help tell the story
of the Armada?
Get investigating:
Challenge your class to use the library and internet
(if available) to find out what they can about one
or more of the following areas either in class or as
a homework activity:
F ind out more about the Spanish Armada.
Imagine you are a newspaper reporter at the
time and write a report for your local press.
F ind out more about the artist and why the
paintings were created. Imagine you are writing
a profile of the artist for an exhibition of their
work.
What other events in history have you been
learning about? Make a list of the events you
would choose to commemorate and include
your reasons why.
parliament.uk/education
Lesson 2 – Events
The ArmadA Paintings,
anthony oakshEtt
Get creative:
You can choose one of the following two
approaches to create your works of art.
Method 1) Story board an important event:
You will need:
C
opies of each worksheet provided in this pack
P
ens, coloured pencils or paints
L arge plain paper
1. Ask the class to complete Worksheet 1 to
identify an event (either personal or historical)
that is important to them and that they can use
to create a piece of art. Ideas might include: a
family holiday, wedding or birthday, as well as
historical events you have studied in class such
as the Great Fire of London or the sinking of
the Titanic.
2. Using Worksheet 2, the storyboard template,
ask the class to identify four key scenes from
the event and plan them within the template.
3. Using the storyboard, students can either create
their own ‘comic book’ style art work in paints,
coloured pencils or pens, or if you have more
time, develop one or more of their scenes into
a bigger commemorative art work.
4. As with the Armada paintings they may want to
use captions or titles to help explain the event
they are depicting.
Method 2) Upscale photographs of existing events
You will need:
P
hotographs either from school or home
C
omputer and scanner or projector
L arge plain paper
P
ens, coloured pencils or paints
1. Explain to the class that the Armada paintings
were scaled up from much smaller original
engravings and you can do the same by scaling
up a photo of a real event.
2. Provide the class with photos of school or local
events, or ask them to bring in photos of events
important to them. These will form the basis of
their pictures.
3. If you have several images from the same event,
pick four and arrange them into a story board.
This activity will also work if you have just one
image.
4. Once the students have chosen the image or
images, they will need to scale them up to a
larger size. This can be done by scanning into
a computer and printing at a larger size. The
students can lay paper over the image and trace
through. They may need to draw over the main
lines of the photo with a black pen first. Alternatively project the image on to a large piece of
paper attached to a wall and trace around it.
5. If you don’t have equipment available, the class
can simply use the photos as inspiration for
their artwork by drawing the image onto large
paper freehand.
6. The class can now use pens, coloured pencils
or paints to complete their artwork. They can
even add a decorative border or titles like the
Armada paintings.
parliament.uk/education
‘Drake takes De Valdes’s Galleon, the Lord Admiral Pursues the Enemy’ Oil on canvas, by Anthony Oakshett
© Palace of Westminster Collection, WOA 7124
www.parliament.uk/art
‘The Engagement of both Fleets against the Isle of Portland’ Oil on canvas, by Anthony Oakshett
© Palace of Westminster Collection, WOA 7125
www.parliament.uk/art
‘The Sharpest Engagement against the Isle of Wight’ Oil on canvas, by Anthony Oakshett
© Palace of Westminster Collection, WOA 7126
www.parliament.uk/art
‘The English Fleet Pursuing the Spanish Fleet Against Fowey’ Oil on canvas, by Richard Burchett
© Palace of Westminster Collection, WOA 7127
www.parliament.uk/art
‘English Fireships dislodge the Spanish Fleet before Calais’ Oil on canvas, by Anthony Oakshett
© Palace of Westminster Collection, WOA 7127
www.parliament.uk/art
Worksheet 1: Commemorating your event
1) Think
of four historical or personal events that are important to you – they may be
birthdays, holidays, something you are proud of or an event from the past.
a.
b.
c.
d.
hink about each of the events and how you might paint them – which one would you
2) T
like to use to create your artwork?
3) C
an you think of four different moments from your event that you remember most?
By picking four scenes you can create a set of paintings like the Armada paintings
a.
b.
c.
d.
4) I n each of your four scenes, what details about your event can you remember that
would be interesting to include in your picture? It might be the weather, scenery, the
people who were there, decorations, animals or buildings.You can use the Storyboard
template to start to sketch them out.
here would you display your picture so that others could see it and learn about your
5) W
event?
Worksheet 2: Storyboard template
Sketch out the four scenes from the event you are painting.You can then turn all four, or
your favourite one, into a large artwork.
1.
2.
3.
4.