woldgate woods, 21, 23 and 29
november 2006
oil on six canvases, 182.9 x 365.8cm overall
Image © David Hockney. All Rights Reserved.
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From: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture, UK Book.
20.01.12: painting details
'Every tree is different.
Every single one. The branches,
the forces in it; they are
marvellously different. You are
thrilled. This is the infinity of nature.'
David Hockney, speaking to Marco
Livingstone, 29 October 2008
Where three paths meet. The eye is to choose a single view. All around towering trees surround them, enveloping them. Soaring trees as individual as you and me.
You can't take your eyes off the trees with their late autumn colours. You gaze on each one and find colours, colours forming, colours surrendering to shade or escaping from shadow. the sublety of light and shade falling on each tree is astonishinly vivid.
Let your eye wander slowly from left to right. As Hockney says above, 'Every tree is different'.
Tuning nature as you would a TV, what Hockney does here is intensify nature to such an extent that you come away from the painting looking at nature more acutely. You look at what you've hitherto been blind to even with your eyes wide open.
Text: Paul Page, 2012
20.01.12: a bigger picture book & exhibition
David Hockney - A Bigger Picture, UK Book.
Accompanies the acclaimed 2012 Royal Academy Exhibition. Details: here. Details: exhibition.
Book Available: Amazon.co.uk
David Hockney Biography
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Image © David Hockney.
All Rights Reserved.