David Hockney, A Bigger Picture

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a pair of tickets to see the Royal Academy's exhibit 'A Bigger picture' by David Hockney. What a legend! that’s all I can say! It was a huge exhibition space full of huge work! Pretty much everything in the space was paintings of the Yorkshire landscape in changing seasons. I loved its simplicity. Hockney doesn’t try and pretend otherwise he simply captures the constant beauty that is the English country side. Marvelling at the different pleasures that each season brings with it. Its not hyper realistic painting - in fact a couple of the paintings were almost childlike, yet the way they make you feel and recall the English countryside in all its full splendour is very real. You can almost smell the hot fields and feel the flickering shadows as you walk into his painting.
The first room is made up of four paintings each on their own wall- repeating the exact same scene but with seasonal changes, I had to look twice to noticed that it was the same spot he was painting as the seasonal change was so striking. Although some images were painted at the scene, many of Hockney's paintings are from memory giving his imagination freer rein.
There was a large room filled with ipad drawings that documented the coming of spring! Although the marks were noticeably different in many of these digital paintings they retained a true Hockney style and its impressive that such a renowned (and pretty old) artist mastered the use of this tool.
I can really relate to his love of the English countryside - as it is has always been a kind of calming soul quenching therapy for me when I do occasionally make it out and be surrounded by feilds, trees and bushes and life other than our own! Despite the crowds of the exhibition it almost feels like you have been on a spectacular walk through the seasons!