DAVID HOCKNEY: A Bigger Picture, Royal Academy London

Hockney's diverse style has always been influential to my work I am intrigued by his range of artistic methods and find that I learn....

I had visited the Salt Mill in Yorkshire a couple of years ago and experienced his prints and paintings first hand for the first time. My favourite were the unusual and child like "Brothers Grimm" etchings. I loved their simplicity and the different textures.
The salt mill visit and my entire trip to yorkshire told me a lot about Hockney's beautiful yet humble surroundings.
Compared to Hockney's latest exhibition at the Royal academy, the salt mill exhibition was much more intimiate and modest. However I was not disappointed with the standard and the large quantity of work on display.
Hockney, despite being in his 70's, is still evidently producing a vast amount of work.
It was a huge collection of drawings and paintings from the last ten years or so of the Yorkshire countryside in a place called Bridlington.
My first initial thought when i stepped into the gallery was that there was a lot of trees...There wasn't much variation of the subject matter.

In the first room was a collection of his earlier landscapes (from 1956-1998) and I think this was my favourite part of the exhibition. It introduced us to his "representation of space." Instead of describing the visual aspects of space such as light or perspectives, in works such as "Flights into Italy- Swiss Landscape"1962 he illustrates the raw memory of his travels through the swiss Alps. The painting showed a small roughly drawn van with two figures squashed inside, driving through colourful abstract mountains. Apparently, Hockney was stuck in the back of the van so was unable to see much on the journey so Hockney used a geology book to draw from. The scribbled quote I found that his semi-flippant way of working much more modest and interesting than the other work in the exhibition. Hockney painted "Flights into Italy" just after he graduated at the Royal Academy and first got the opportunity to travel so there is a sense of freedom and excitement demonstrated in the use of colour and mark making.

This allusive demonstration of a space or experience was very inspiring.

I then began to explore the rest of the exhibition and understand Hockney's devotion to his work.
This included over a 150 paintings of the same places that Hockney continuously revisited during different times of the year.
The paintings were vibrant and colourful, vast and exuberant; some of them made up of 24 canvas's and were over 6 metres height.

Despite the initial enthralment by the sheer scale of some of the pieces, I was more drawn to the charcoal drawings and water colours he used as a reference to these paintings. They were much more informative and quietly intricate than the loud paintings. The subtle watercolour tones were much more informative and the use of charcoal captured light and shadow in a way that fluorescent pink or any other vibrant oil paint could never do. They were done directly from observation and demonstrated a much more raw and skilful depiction of a space.
The works were done after the release of his book: "Secret Knowledge: Redirecting the lost techniques of the Old Masters," an investigation into optical devices used in art throughout history. "He states that the camera has had a huge huge impact on the composition of paintings since they were introduced. "Hockney deliberately rejects the cameras influence and limited view". The book along with his watercolours demonstrate the importance of recording from observation.

You can also get an idea of the intelligent way that Hockney paints by looking at his iPad paintings.

It was a very odd experience...You got a good idea of how a painting is created as the brushstrokes and layers of colour were much more visible.  However, there was no texture or surface as it was merely a composition of digital layers.
The wasn't anything real about the "painting." One of my favourite things about paintings is the paint itself. I love the texture and the unpredictable behaviour of paint and the fact that you can see the mistakes or smudges to understand the evolution of a painting. It is impossible to reinvent the same behaviour in these "iPaintings" however it is a stark reminder of the possibilities of technology and how it seems to reach into every aspect of our lives.

All in all I found the exhibition very interesting and informative however I thought it was slightly ostentatious.
Despite my skepticism of the exhibition, I appreciated Hockney's skill and devotion to the his work and he is still an artist that I admire and his work remains a solid influence to my own.