David Hockney: A bigger picture

I went to see the enormous David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. It was beautiful! Since I am a member of the RA, I was able to see the show before it officially opens, but it was still very busy. I have a fear that, when it opens, it will be just as chaotic as when they had their Van Gogh exhibition two years ago: I remember having to queue for two hours to get tickets, and technically queue behind other spectators to see each individual canvas!

I took a photograph, the quality is not that good, but you get the idea of the scale of his paintings:

The exhibition, sectioned up into approximately 12 rooms, dealt with different themes but the subject of nature was seen throughout.

They were mostly centred around the landscapes of East Yorkshire but exceptions to this was Yosemite paintings, Grand Canyon paintings, photo collages and a couple of pieces from his student time and from his life in Los Angeles (don't expect to see any swimming pools though).

His famous Grand Canyon painting 'A Closer Grand Canyon' painted in 1998, is permanently shown at the Louisiana Museum of Modern art in Denmark, and I had seen it there before several times:

When I saw it again here in London, next to all the other big Hockney paintings, it seemed much smaller than when I had originally seen it, but it was still spectacular. I love the colours he uses, they really grab your attention, and even though I brought my sketchbook, I had no chance to do any drawing because I had looked around for so long, that by the time I had finished, they closed the exhibition!

I admire his patience, as he would paint the same view eight times to get the different seasons.

His ipad paintings and a video installation showing the original locations used for his pictures is also on show.

Go see it if you can, it is one of the best exhibitions around!

'The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist' David Hockney.

Time of no reply

I have independent study week, where I need to decide what to do for my final major project. It is a bit daunting to think that this is the final project, but exciting at the same time. I would like to continue working with negative spaces, but in a more general way, focusing less on trees.

Here are some cut-outs of negative space that I worked on during the christmas holidays. I made them by cutting into card. I found real joy in working with a knife and cutting out sections - there is a sense of real connection with the material, and a sort of labour satisfaction at the end of the day when one can pick up the paper and look through the gaps.

They are all A3 except for the first image, which is a small experiment from my sketchbook.

Seeing our surroundings through an object, in this case through a tree. Using the colour palette of a tree instead of a plain white for the object:

Looking up through the tree, a picture of the sky behind the cut-out.

Looking straight through the tree, an image of its surrounding behind the cut-out.

Looking down through the tree from above, an image of the ground behind the cut-out.

Relaxing in the north

Happy New Year! A bit late, but I have completely forgotten to update the blog due to spending time with my family! It was nice being home, and the Swedish sun was ever so pretty yesterday!

Whilst being in the north I also took the opportunity to go to some art exhibitions. I went to Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, where Paul Klee, COBRA and Ai Weiwei were on display. And the Moderna Museet in Malmö, Sweden, had an exhibition entitled 'Changing Scenes' which exhibited Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder, Ferdinand Leger, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso amongst others, and it looked at outer factors influencing the artists: dance and Africa for example.

I am back in London now, starting the last part of my degree!

Ai Weiwei

Louisiana sculpture park

Danish sunset

My New Year resolutions are these:

1. Practice drawing more often in form of life and observational drawings

2. Keep a diary of thoughts and ideas

Do you have any resolutions?

Our project in InFocus magazine

Quick update between rice pudding and a cinema visit, our Broad Vision project had an article in the December issue of InFocus, The Royal Microscopical Society's magazine. You can read it here, and my images are included too:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6592169/Infocus_MID.pdf

So long, London

I am back in Sweden for christmas! I finished my dissertation draft last week with 9500 words, so less of this:

and more of this:

Glædelig jul.

I have never been to Africa

Screenprinting my days away.

'I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed' First Day of My Life