Painting analysis - David Hockney

This is an I-Pad print by David Hockney which was exhibited at his « A Bigger Picture » exhibition in London. It seems to be composed of several prints assembled together in a composition. This brick technique is often used by David Hockney to form huge and impressive paintings. He has done it with oil paintings before.

The first thing that strikes the viewer is the unusual use of colours by the artist. They are, as often in his work, extremely vivid and vibrant. Although this landscape represents a countryside scene in winter – the bare trees suggest so much – the painting is surprisingly colourful. This probably compensates for the fact that I-Pad drawing is flat and you loose the texture which is so typical of oil paintings. In using these vibrant and contrasting hues, as well as a clear sense of perspective, the artist creates the sense of depth which you definitely have here. The colours also contribute to creating a dramatic effect in revisiting the traditional world of landscape painting in an original and successful way. After all, this scene in itself represents three black trees with no leaves on a background of bright blue mountains and a foreground formed by a field organized in diagonal lines of alternate green and orangey brown to create perspective. The field is limited by a line of wild growth and in the left bottom corner there are some reeds which seem to sway in the wind and contrast with the well-defined lines of the cultivated field. The other element which creates the sense of depth is the presence of another field in golden shades between the first field and the mountains in the background. This also enhances the dramatic effect of the black trees with their thin, intricate network of branches reaching for the sky.