Archive | Culture club

Art, photography, books, culture

David Hockney

August 18th, 2013

Today I’m celebrating the British artist David Hockney and one of my favorite paintings, A Bigger Splash. David Hockney has had a long time love affair with Hollywood and California. He famously said his childhood passion for the movies made him feel like he was raised in both England and Hollywood. He was drawn to the light and heat of California and finally moved from London to Los Angeles after attending the Royal Collage of Art in London during the early sixties.

The swimming pools of Los Angeles were his favorite subject. Iconic works such as A Bigger Splash saw him explore new ways of painting and cemented his reputation as an international artist. With A Bigger Splash, David Hockney depicts a typical California day. Warm and sunny, blue skies above with the iconic palm trees in the distance. A true celebration of California life seen through the artistic eye of one of England’s greatest living painters.

A Bigger Splash, 1967 is currently on display at London’s Tate Britain Gallery.

Tim Walker

August 6th, 2013

I have to share with you my love for the London based photographer Tim Walker. Known as the story teller, Tim Walker’s iconic images have been inspiring and enchanting myself and many, many others for over a decade.

His wildly wonderful photographs resemble large scale film productions with every detail carefully considered with just the right amount of gentle humor . He shot his first fashion story for Vogue at the age of 25 and has contributed some of the most unforgettable images to the magazine ever since. Tim Walker manages to capture the british sensibility, turning “daydreams into photographs” like no one else.

For more Tim Walker posts, click here

Damien Hirst’s spot paintings

June 10th, 2013

Damien Hirst has been responsible for producing many widely recognized pieces of art. From his beautiful Butterfly paintings through to later works such as the Diamond Skull “for the love of God”. However for me it has to be his spot paintings.

Originally conceived for the Famous 1998 “freeze” exhibition which exhibited the work of himself and fellow friends from Goldsmiths in London. Damien Hirst painted two series of coloured spots straight onto the gallery walls. As he says “a way of pinning down colour”.

There are over 300 spot paintings in existence. The smallest painting being 1×1/2 inches and the largest comprising of four spots, each 60 inches in diameter. Memorably these painting were all documented in the 2012 exhibition held by the Gagosian Gallery “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986 – 2011”