Tech Savvy

The first iPhone was released in 2007. Hockney got one in 2008 and soon began using the Brushes app to draw. A few years later, he bought an iPad. Unlike a heavy easel, canvas, and paints, a tablet is easy to carry into the woods. Hockney soon created more than 100 iPad works en plein air—or outside—capturing the arrival of spring in East Yorkshire, England, where he was living.

Hockney explores space in his 2011 iPad drawings of East Yorkshire, three of which are shown above. The roads guide the viewer deep into each scene. But these works, when viewed together, are also about time. How does the artist show this place transforming with the seasons?

For Hockney, the iPad is a versatile tool. He uses it to plan new paintings, as a medium for making prints, and as an art form itself. Sometimes he displays iPads showing digital animations of his works in progress as he drew them.

Hockney got his first iPhone in 2008. He began using the Brushes app to draw. Soon he bought an iPad. A tablet is easier to carry than a heavy easel, canvas, and paints. Hockney took his iPad into the woods. He created more than 100 iPad works en plein air, or outside.

At that time, Hockney was living in East Yorkshire, England. He captured this place in the 2011 works shown above. The roads guide the viewer deep into each scene. How does Hockney show East Yorkshire transforming with the seasons?

To create his 2015 Reading in the Studio, above, Hockney took a series of digital photos of each object and figure. Then he digitally collaged them together to create a single multi-viewpoint image. In works like these, which Hockney calls photographic drawings, the figures appear to have volume and form. And he creates a sense of place through harmony of color and light.

The technology Hockney uses in this work is more advanced, but the process is similar to works like Telephone Pole. And like including his shoes at the bottom of the earlier example, he leaves an open book and a place at the table for the viewer. Can you imagine yourself turning the page?

To create his 2015 Reading in the Studio, above, Hockney took a series of digital photos of each object and person. Then he collaged them together on a computer to create a single image. Hockney calls works like these “photographic drawings.” He uses color and light to make the objects and people look like they were really in the same place at the same time.

The technology Hockney uses in this work is advanced. But the process is similar to works like Telephone Pole. He leaves an open book and a place at the table for the viewer. Can you imagine yourself turning the page?