British Artist David Hockney (b.1937) is the most well-known and versatile of all the artistes of the twentieth century. He has not only been a great painter but has also contributed immensely to other creative fields, such as photography, stage designing, and draftsmanship. His earlier work depicted the material realities of everyday life. He also painted several portraits. For the last few years however, Hockney has been completely taken by Landscapes, making them his prime inspiration for coloring the canvass. The most famous of these is his “Bigger Trees near Warter.”
“Bigger Trees near Warter” is an oil painting made from 50 canvases. It is Hockney’s largest painting until date. The painting, which is 45 feet wide and 15 feet high, grandly depicts a sycamore grove in East Yorkshire. The aim of the painter is to capture the movement of light through the branches of the trees. The English countryside featured in the masterpiece includes numerous sycamore trees in rows, with one huge tree in the foreground. The long branches of this tree are spreading across the expanse of the painting. There is a road curving away towards the left side of the trees and at the right side, a couple of small brown and blue houses are shown. Few daffodils are also visible in the foreground.
To paint a landscape, Hockney drives to the spot of his choice, in his truck loaded with paints and canvases. He spends a few hours to assimilate the beauty of the place, visually and emotionally feeling every corner he intends to paint. Then he quickly transfers to the canvas the entire scene that is captured and locked up in his mind. The colors and vibrancy in his paintings speak a lot about the depth of David’s observation. Same was his modus operandi with “Bigger Trees near Warter” too.
In “Bigger Trees near Warter,” the liveliness reflected shows the painter’s great passion for art. The marvelous picture adorned a whole wall of the Royal Academy. For its creation, along with the traditional painting tools, such as eyes and hands, Hockney made use of modern digital technology as well. He understood that a picture of such enormity could not be flawlessly made without using computers. Therefore, his assistant Jean-Pierre kept taking photographs of the painting, as Hockney continued to work on it.
Later, these photographic images were fitted to create a computer-mosaic of the entire painting. This gave the painter a chance to look at his work in entirety, as if he were taking a step back to look at his canvas. Hockney donated the great painting to Tate Britain in April 2008, which certainly would have earned millions, had it been put for auction.
