My Window by David Hockney, XL format

When David Hockney discovered the iPhone as an artistic medium, he opened up entirely new possibilities for painting. He made his first digital drawings in spring 2009. The iPhone was easy to use and he didn’t even have to get out of bed to start his working day, drawing morning impressions in broad lines and dazzling colours directly on his screen. In 2010, Hockney first used an iPad which, with its larger screen, expanded his artistic repertoire and enabled an even more complex interplay of colour, light, and line.

Each image captures a fleeting moment, from the lilac morning sky to nighttime impressions and the arrival of spring. Here are drops on window panes, distant lights in the night, reflections on glasses and an abundance of subtly varied vegetation. We experience the joy of minute detail and the passage of time through the eyes of the worlds greatest living artist.

David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. He first emerged in the early 1960s during the height of British pop, then moved to Los Angeles in 1964, where he famously painted the light, the landscape, and the swimming pools. Always evolving his art, he became interested in new technologies, working with Polaroids, fax machines, digital video, or the iPhone and iPad as tools for his painting. The largest collection of his work is held here at Salts Mill. For more information on visiting the Mill, please see saltsmill.org.uk

Hardcover, 29 x 37.7 cm, 2.74 kg, 248 pages