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British artist David Hockney, known for his contributions to the Pop Art movement of the 1960’s has found a new medium for creating as well as displaying his creations: the Apple iPad. Hockney, aged 73, began making doodles on his iPhone in 2008 using the application Brushes http://www.brushesapp.com/ and began emailing them to a small group of friends. By the end of 2009 he had created around 1000 images, including a series of paintings of the rising sun that he made without leaving his bed. Hockney praised the convenience of using a mobile device to create art:

“It’s always there in my pocket, there’s no thrashing about, scrambling for the right color. One can set to work immediately, there’s this wonderful impromptu quality, this freshness, to the activity; and when it’s over, best of all, there’s no mess, no clean-up. You just turn off the machine. Or, even better, you hit Send, and your little cohort of friends around the world gets to experience a similar immediacy. There’s something, finally, very intimate about the whole process.”

With the release of the iPad this year the artist was provided with a larger canvas to work on, which he says “takes it to a new level.” The iPad’s 9.7 inch screen allowed Hockney to create even more intricate paintings. The culmination of his experiments in this new medium is his current exhibition in Paris called Fleurs Fraiches (Fresh Flowers). http://www.fondation-pb-ysl.net/fr/Accueil-Fondation-Pierre-Berge-Yves-Saint-Laurent-471.html Perhaps the most interesting thing about this show is that the images were not only created on the iPhone and iPad, but they are being displayed on them as well. This allows the viewers to see the images as the artist intended, rather than rendering them onto paper or using a television or projector. Hockney also uses the iPad to periodically change the images displayed, allowing him to refresh the flowers.

Another element of this story that I love is how Hockney carries his iPad around. His coats already had large pockets on the inside that he formerly used to carry drawing pads around. These have been repurposed to carry around his new favorite drawing tool: the Apple iPad.

Come into one of our retail locations http://www.smalldog.com/retail and give the iPad a test run. Maybe you can be the next Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, or David Hockney!