Tuesday 1 February 2011

Research - David Hockney

I started reading about David Hockney's work on the internet and decided to complete my research with some of his painted images.  David Hockney is English and was born in Bradford 9th July 1937. After schools and colleges he moved and spent years in America as an artist.  There he did a lot of photo montage work (joining more than 1 image together). before returning to England.  He happened upon doing that style of work by mistake; when he had to take photographs on an assignment and couldn't get the camera lens wide enough to get it all in the frame, he took lots and glued them together, then noticed how he liked the effect.

David Hockney is a photographer and painter and started painting in watercolours a few years ago as he started to spend more time in East Yorkshire.  His links there stem from when he worked the land as a young man and he still regularly visits family in Bridlington. He describes the East Yorkshire landscapes as having "the sort of wide vistas you get all the time in the American west."
He also paints in oils on canvas:

                                                                  By David Hockney

The grandness of this image just shows how David Hockney likes to put lots of images together to form one large one.  It is very colourful and striking and he painted it in oils. There is lots to look at and the colours are bold, with just a hint of blue sky far far beyond, just showing its tip like a border to the top. I enjoy colour in pictures and he uses lots. There are 60 different pieces of canvas work in this....He must be the master of montage.

By David Hockney

This image shows him painting on 6 canvas pieces in a woodland scene in Yorkshire.  He would set up all his gear and each piece of the 6 would take a couple of days to complete in situ. He likes to take this same scene and others,  in different seasons showing different colour effects. I have featured this because I love wooded areas to photograph and this picture struck me and  seeing the lengths he goes to to create his art.  I like his portrayal of the trees and groundwork.


By David Hockney

 Talk about England's green and pleasant land - this must be it! I like this image and find it strikingly colourful again and very vivid.  There is no sky to be seen, he has filled the frame with just fields, hedges and the odd building.  There are many different shades of greens and the way the other bold colours filter in, makes the scene balance. I like the little red house in the foreground with its tall conifers, and the way the winding road leads the eye from foreground right through to background. It is good that he managed to depict so many different fields within one image, and all the different shades of greens make them stand out, and it all adds to the interest.  It makes your eye want to search out all the nooks and crannies of the scene.

I can't really compare my photograph work to the paintings here, except for the similar subject matter, being that of landscapes of fields and trees; their composition and shape; the way I often filled my frame with an image that didn't contain much sky; and the celebration and enjoyment of nature's colours.
                                                                          The End.

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