I recently visited the David Hockney exhibition at Factory International (Aviva Studios). Not only was I struck by how inspirational they were, but how they were related to garden design.
While the paintings of California pool landscapes are the most famous and iconic images, it was his techniques in painting nature that really inspired me during the immersive exhibition in Manchester city centre.
His impressionist-style painting manages to capture the movement of trees, plants and flowers beautifully. In fact, while watching the paintings, it brought to mind the garden design work of Piet Oudolf. Oudolf, who many people say ‘paints with plants’.
Some years ago, there was a Hockney and Van Gogh exhibition. Van Gogh’s impressionist landscape paintings of the South of France were hugely inspirational to Hockney when painting landscapes in both Bridlington, Yorkshire and France. In 2020 during the Covid pandemic, David Hockney started a new collection. Hockney used an iPad to paint 116 new works from his home in Normandy – the French landscape serving as his biggest inspiration.
The exhibition at Factory brought the images to life. They were broadcast onto huge floor-to-ceiling screens, with a narration from Hockney himself, with his soothing Yorkshire tones.
The techniques are straight from the Impressionist playbook, but Hockney’s paintings and images are vibrant, jumping off the screen, almost straight into your brain. His paintings of landscapes, nature and trees bring together colour, movement and perspective. They give the viewer a real sense of awe, much like a beautiful planting design can inspire wonder in the viewer.
Personal opinion
I loved his ability to capture the different light of changing seasons. As a garden designer, I could connect to his process and appreciate the effect this brought to his work. His use of different medium was impressive, from photography montage, traditional painting and his later iPad drawings. In my opinion these would all be truly inspirational to any artist. Landscape, gardens and planting bring together the same levels of creativity as art. Both are interwoven using colour, texture and movement to invoke a real sense of beauty and awe in the viewer.
This exhibition was truly inspirational. Even though my visit was at the end of a really busy year, I was inspired to get back to ‘painting with plants’.