David Hockney at the Royal Academy

David Hockney is undoubtedly one of the best British artists of the 20^th century, and has a long established fascination with the depiction of landscapes.  Working most recently on huge canvases filled with bright contrasting colours, his work is vibrant, bold and exciting.

Thinking outside the traditional painter’s box, Hockney has been drawing on an iPhone since 2008, eagerly graduating to the iPad in 2010. Using a simple £6 app called Brushes, his initial infatuation with iPhone drawing was the ability to send finger-drawn images to friends, usually of flowers, or the view from his window. This became an almost daily habit, and led to his recent ‘Fresh Flowers’ exhibit, which involved drawings made on the electronic devices that were projected onto screens.  

His latest exhibition, ‘The Bigger Picture’, is comprised of work from the last few years; a range of vivid large-scale paintings inspired by the East Yorkshire landscape and created especially for the Royal Academy. Using an iPad proved invaluable for creating these works, as they are made up of multiple panels, the size of which allow the viewer to really get lost in the scene portrayed. A series of films have also been produced, using 18 cameras and multiple screens set up in the gallery, which will show an artistic journey through the eyes of Hockney himself. It’s a great example of how technology and artistry can combine to create new ideas – and, at 74, Hockney also proves that you’re never too old to get to grips with an iPad.

‘David Hockney: A Bigger Picture’ opens at the Royal Academy on 21^st Jan and runs until 9^th April. Advance booking is strongly recommended. For more info, visit http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/

Visiting the Past at Dennis Severs House

“Aut Visum Aut Non: You either see it, or you don’t”

Just around the corner from one of London’s busiest modern day transport hubs sits a quiet house in a stately street.  The old lantern outside the door hints at what lies inside: an historical time capsule that is worlds away from Liverpool Street’s hustle and bustle. Behind its doors, 18 Folgate Street holds an imaginative still life drama without any visible actors – except for the resident black cat.

Dennis Severs, a Californian obsessed with English history, moved into the property in 1979 and set about restoring each of the ten rooms to represent a different historical period, from the 1700s to the early 20^th century. Three generations of the fictitious Jervis family are woven through the portraits and armchairs, bedspreads and knick-knacks that litter the place. But this is not a museum, and its contents aren’t preserved with glass cases or placards. This is a lived in house, whose inhabitants have supposedly just left the room, and their presence can be felt throughout a visit there.

Payment is taken on the doorstep, along with a finger to the lips and a heartfelt request to be as quiet as possible. Once inside, the candlelight reveals steaming teapots, freshly sliced boiled eggs, half eaten bread on the kitchen table and soapy water in the sink. Tiptoeing past rumpled sheets in the bedrooms and ducking under wet washing hung across the stairwell gives the strong impression you’re trespassing in someone else’s home, but frankly its too fascinating to feel guilty. As the family’s wealth rises and falls through the centuries, the quality of their lifestyle changes too; moving further into the house introduces peeling wallpaper, thinner carpets and an accumulation of dust and cobwebs.

The scent of cloves and oranges, the flickering candlelight and an array of background sounds guide your senses in building an image of the unseen inhabitants’ lives, from the clothes they wear to the letters they’ve written. If you’ve ever imagined yourself stepping into a painting, this is the place to experience it for real.

The museum opens every Sunday afternoon & Monday lunchtime and costs £10. For more info, visit www.dennissevershouse.co.uk