David Hockney on Nature

Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Art has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus.--David Hockney

Painter, photographer, printmaker, stage designer and artist David Hockney is one of the most influential and well known artists of our time. He is outspoken, always articulate and witty.

He was born July 9 1937, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He has lived on-and-off in California and England for much of his life. He is the Brit who has become known as the artist of Southern California.

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.--David Hockney

Lucy Walker, Los Angeles County Museum of Art has made a short film (6 minutes) that covers the content of his art as he talks about his life and art. One of these is nature.

Mr. Hockney's home page shows the range of his work and also includes a fine, illustrated biography.

Enjoyment of the landscape is a thrill.--David Hockney

Hockney is the author of a book on how he thinks painters, especially the great masters used lenses to make their paintings so realistic. Here, Hockney, a showman with no-small ego, explains his ideas in an interview with Charlie Rose. 

The book led American TV magicians Penn and Teller to make a documentary featuring inventor Tim Jenison who used optics to re-paint a classic Vermeer, The Music Lesson. Tim's Vermeer played to mixed reviews for which see here and here.