
David Hockney
David Hockney’s 30th May 2021, From the Studio is a panoramic vision of the English countryside, executed in his celebrated digital medium of the iPad. Composed of three separate iPad paintings joined as a single continuous scene, the work unfolds as a luminous study of nature in late spring. The composition captures the freshness of the season with rolling green fields, scattered trees in various stages of bloom, and a wide, expansive sky filled with drifting clouds rendered in Hockney’s distinctive, almost tactile brushstrokes.
At the centre of the work, a house with a steep red roof nestles among trees, both framing and grounding the scene, while paths and open spaces draw the eye into the depth of the landscape. A bench to the left foreground suggests human presence without intrusion, inviting viewers into a contemplative encounter with the countryside. The trees—some still bare, others newly leafed—highlight Hockney’s ongoing fascination with cycles of growth, change, and renewal.
The choice of the iPad as a medium underscores Hockney’s enduring commitment to innovation and experimentation. By translating painterly tradition into digital technology, he merges timeless subject matter—the rural landscape—with contemporary tools, achieving vivid colour saturation and immediacy. Mounted on dibond, the large-scale work takes on a physical presence that belies its digital origins, bridging the gap between screen and canvas.
30th May 2021, From the Studio belongs to Hockney’s later body of work created during his time in Normandy, where he immersed himself in the changing seasons of the French and English countryside. Like much of his recent practice, this work offers both personal reflection and universal meditation—an affirmation of the beauty of ordinary days, rendered with the clarity, joy, and visual rhythm that define Hockney’s mature style.