A Hockney fest

 

 Untitled (work in progress -- almost done)

Acrylic on canvas

12 x 12 inches

Barbara Muir © 2012

I don't know if you like David Hockney's work, but I am a
major fan.  Funds to our wonderful public broadcasting
station CBC have been cut, which means a lot of repeated
programming.  This week the repeats were definitely in my favour
as I heard two interviews with David Hockney
in one week, one with Eleanor Wachtel, and one with Jian
Ghomeshi.

What I loved:

Scale
With one interviewer the discussion of scale came up.
Hockney talked about how large scale presented technical
problems.  For instance he is 6 foot, and working on something
12 feet high was double his height.  He talked about how
Monet dug a trench to be able to complete his largest
water lily series.  The interviewer wanted to discuss the
whys of scale, and Hockney the technical challenges.
The largest painting I have worked on to date is 4 feet by
6 feet high.  On an easel, even at the lowest setting the painting
was 7 feet high -- a challenge for a 5'4" woman.  I painted
quite a bit of it standing on a chair.

Kindness
When Hockney started drawing on his iPhone he sent the
drawings to friends.  He talked about how most items
people get in their emails are requests, and pieces of
information.  So he'd wake up, see a sunrise or a flower
(he likes to have flowers about), and draw that and send it
off.  What he liked most about that was that his friends said
that they enjoyed receiving his little drawings.  Hockney then
switched to the iPad, and had an exhibition in Toronto at
the Royal Ontario Museum of his iPad drawings exhibited
on 40 iPads.

Permanence
When asked  if he was bothered by how ephemeral digitally
produced images were, Hockney said that everything
is ephemeral.  Nothing lasts.  That didn't worry him, he just
liked recording what he saw.

Colour
The artist noted in one conversation that even movies were
reducing the amount of colour on the screen.  He said that
in fact the world is very colourful if you really look at it.
Hockney likes bright colour.  Yay!

Here is a painting I am working on.  I don't in any way
claim to be similar to Hockney, but I do love his work.
I like how Hockney goes forward doing what he likes,
and continuing to innovate as he creates -- not by trying to
be ultra modern, or way out, but by being totally
unique whatever he tries. The irony of course is that by
doing what he likes, he ends up being cutting edge.

Have a being-your-own-artist day.