A Bigger Book

Across all of Hockney's collections, his enduring fascination with travel, flowers, and personal settings stands out. Drawing inspiration from the ornate bouquets of 17th-century Dutch paintings to the free-flowing interpretations by modernists like Matisse, Hockney offers detailed studies of roses, lilies, and daffodils that surpass mundane compositions.

The choice of medium in Hockney's work is deliberate and significant. He easily transitions between muted lithographs, reminiscent of past masters, to striking etchings such as Red Wire Plant. But come 2010, the introduction of the iPad led Hockney down a transformative path of Digital Drawings. This new avenue, replete with the Brushes app's capabilities, allowed him to blend the thin lines of his etchings with the colourful washes familiar to his lithography. His digital process, capturing all the prevalent motifs in his works, are unmistakably Hockney – a harmonious blend of pattern, texture, and line that brings the artwork to life.

The four iPad prints that accompany editions A to D of A Bigger Book exemplify Hockney's experimentation with colour and technology whilst presenting the traditional still life image. Untitled No.468 invites the viewer into an interior setting where a plant is sat on a side table. The variety of digital strokes used within the image give strength to the plants leaves, playing with the perspective of the room and drawing the eye in to the centre of the print.

Throughout the years, many of Hockney's masterpieces are windows into private worlds, often revealing subtle glimpses of cherished relationships. They pose questions, tease the viewer's curiosity, and paint tales of diverse lives coexisting within shared spaces. With every page turned in A Bigger Book, Hockney challenges us to look deeper, to find the stories hidden in plain sight, and to celebrate the beauty of the ordinary and the profound.