Lilacs
Signed Print

In 2010 Apple released the first iPad and Hockney’s practice was transformed. Whereas before he would have to transfer his sketches and watercolours from the page to the etching plate or lithographic stone, now he could draw and ‘paint’ directly onto the screen and produce a series of multiples at the touch of a button. Here we see the artist experimenting with the various effects offered by his favoured drawing app, moving from squiggly lines we associate with digital drawing to areas of soft pink haze which offer a delicate contrast. Hockney has also masterfully depicted the water in the glass jar which holds this small bouquet of flowers and foliage, which is extremely convincing in its transparency and refraction of the cut stems. The flowers appear to sit in a sea of pink lines, perhaps a carpet or tablecloth, which seems to stretch into infinity. The palette of green and pink is strongly reminiscent of other series Hockney produced on his ipad from The Yosemite Suite to The Arrival Of Spring in 2011, in which he also strived to capture the ephemeral beauty of the natural world in a digital medium.