David Hockney

The earlier work of David Hockney is very appealing to me. The Splash images depicting Californian swimming pools use a restricted colour palette. The content and style exude a calming almost indifferent attitude. Probably because the beautiful people living their beautiful existence seem almost like Gods to me. As a voyeur of those scenes, I feel I could easily be standing, face pressed against the railings, at the gates of an exclusive house to which I would not be given admittance.

I envy those cool blue swimming pools and uncluttered Modernist houses. The paintings are mood lifters. Visions of warmer days and fresh sunny Californian mornings - promises of uncomplicated sex and wet foot prints on cool tiled floors. I could live in those paintings.

If I'm honest, I think the images appeal mainly from a sensual perspective. The desire for my own swimming pool in a hot country and to be young again. Although having taken a break from writing this post I've had time to reflect on my thoughts. I've had an idea for a Hockney inspired piece of work or series that deals with the emotions of longing and exclusion. I enjoy the process of taking thoughts and emotions and turning them into possibilities for art. I keep a sketchbook just for this purpose. I think I will jot these ideas down in case I have a need to refer to them again at a later date.

I also enjoyed looking at Hockney's Polaroid montages - both the actual photographic works and the drawings inspired by them. I have a Polaroid camera, given to me as a present, and I've been tempted a couple of times to use it to make a piece like the one below - not necessarily a nude. I'm always held back by the cost per image. Maybe I should give it a try.

The image below uses a much stronger colour palette than the Splash paintings. There is an immediacy to the work because of this and of course the fact that the montage is made up of photographs and not painted. I've seen the original in a gallery and it is a very large piece if I remember rightly. Hockney used a step ladder to get some height for parts of the composition and used different perspectives to jumble up the spatial characteristics. The work is more interesting for that.