Seeking to find out how I could best use this final unit, I decided to go to the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park. There I knew I'd find a large assortment of artists, particularly painters, who I hoped might give me some inspiration. I was not disappointed, it was as if I had been dropped into a world of innovation and colour, everywhere I looked there were incredible ways of conveying people and nature, Going forward, Christine Relton, Tom Marine and Andrew Hood, gave me a renewed excitement and energy for my studio practice this unit, and I was filled with ideas for new things to try.
Battersea Art Fair, July
David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020, at the Royal Academy of Arts.
To ignite this new direction in my work I decided to go to Hockney's RA exhibition, the Arrival of Spring. Walking around and taking in these scenes that covered every wall, I felt at home. Even on an iPad, Hockney is able to communicate to me the power and impact nature can have on our emotional state. There is no ulterior motive with his work, no hidden agenda, to me it's pure honest expression: “Hockney has shown again that painting nature is a resonant response to a great crisis”(Jonathon Jones, The Guardian). The way he would use also any shape and colour to depict trees, hills, flowers etc. is just mesmerising. This way of working was echoed to me in a tutorial not long after, and I was encouraged to have a look at the work of Graham Crawley, who has no problem using any colour when it comes to landscape. I was also told why paint a tree brown, why not paint it yellow, red or blue?