DAVID HOCKNEY: EXPERIENCES OF PLACE AND SPACE

This post collects together a lot of ideas of Hockney's use of space and place often creating narratives, journeys and always characters of his subject matter. The way he combines multiple elements create a whole to create these themes. The use of vibrant colour, reverse perspective to flatten and exploit deep and shallow space forcing the perspective to draw the audience in and clever use of line to achieve a similar effect are all hall marks of these works.

Going up Garrowby Hill 2000 
The picture represents a journey he used to make from his mothers house to visit a friend in York. It uses multiple viewpoints and forced surreal perspective to create a narrative of the multiple viewpoints of the journey at once capturing the highlights and the overall. He creates an illusion of depth through the foreground elements and the road takes the eye into the picture and the chapters unfolding through a rich vibrant landscape.

Nichols Canyon 1980
A similar work to the above but with an even more vibrant use of colour. Throughout his career Hockney was never afraid of colour and this piece encapsulates this. As above it is of a journey this time from his house to his studio. To quote the exhibition notes "flatness collides with illusion of spatial depth. But above all, these are paintings through which the eye dances, drawn by a sensuousness of line and colour where edges of viewpoints fold into and across each other". As before I love the interpretation of and sense of narrative and emotion of the piece.

15 Canvas Study of the Grand Canyon & 9 Canvas study of the GrandCanyon 1998
Hockney loved the idea of the challenge that painting landscapes of a large scale posed and when he heard of the Grand Canyon being "the despair of the painter" he rose to the challenge. Both of the paintings above are made up of multiple images from multiple perspectives. These were painted on location hence the smaller canvasses that build to create the overall image. The illusion of depth is created by using the foreground to create the depth from which the background depth and vastness is created.

Wildgate Woods 6th & 9th November 2006
Again multiple canvasses painted on location but this time back in the UK and his beloved Yorkshire. The use of light is amazing as is the vibrant use of colour and it does feel like 6 TV screens. The change of time appears to be different from the bright light and long shadows of the middle and left canvasses to the more autumnal palette and lack of light and shadows on the right. I live this changing narrative of the piece that plays with time and almost looks like 2 pictures in one but still is cohesive as a whole.

What I have learnt and will take forward.

• The use of multiple viewpoints within one picture to tell a story. I have been struggling with my Global Warmning pieces to create a narrative and journey of the debate in a visually creative way of multiple elements all on screen at one. The perspective and multiple viewpoints within these works are something to consider.
• The use of colour and shape to excite the viewer and especially line to draw the viewer in and take them on a journey.
• The multi canvas images of the Grand Canyon and Wildgate Woods works suggest something that could be done with TV screens or multiple projections. These could obviously change in synch or independently over time to reveal an ever changing image, perspective and viewpoints in place, space and narrative.
• Playing with time and narrative in different screens that make a whole as in Wildgate Woods. This allows narratives to be played concurrently.