 |
| David Hockney's six-part oil painting 'Woldgate Woods, 26, 27 & 30 July 2006' " Woldgate Woods, 26, 27 & 30 July" 2006 Oil on 6 Canvases (36 X 48" each) 72 X 144" overall, © David Hockney, Photo by Richard Schmidt. |
 |
| A wild array of weedlike field pennycress, punctuated by orange asclepias 'Beatrix' and mauve astrantia major 'Rubra' evoke the lush Yorkshire scene captured by David Hockney's painting. Photo by Stephen Kent Johnson for WSJ. Styling by Lindsey Taylor (arrangement); vintage green-glazed pitcher, author's own. |
I ADORE NEARLY everything about Yorkshire, England. Years ago, I spent whole days walking the green-covered Dales, a stretch of hills and valleys where you can roam freely. But before I'd even been to Yorkshire, I was a fan of artist David Hockney, born there in the city of Bradford, in 1937. In my room growing up, I had a poster of his 1981 crayon drawing of his friend and muse, textile artist Celia Birtwell; it's still a favorite.
In the late 1990s, Mr. Hockney began making regular trips back to Yorkshire, temporarily leaving behind his adopted Los Angeles home where he had spent the better part of his career basking in California light. Seeing his native land with fresh eyes, he began painting it, in watercolor and oil, and drawing it in charcoal and via an iPad app. In 2005, he was working largely en plein-air, in all weather and seasons. Over the last decade, he's produced a collection of impressive works, some of which will appear in an exhibition opening at New York's Pace Gallery on Sept. 5.
Earlier this month, as summer's heat became oppressive, I started looking to Mr. Hockney's large-scale Yorkshire landscapes to dream a little about somewhere cooler and greener. As the inspiration for my August arrangement, I settled on his monumental oil painting "Woldgate Woods, 26, 27 & 30 July 2006." Six canvases combined to create a 72-by-144-inch work, it's one in a series of paintings he executed in the exact same spot in different seasons. Just letting my eyes linger on the intense greens of the vegetation in this work seemed to cleanse New York's muggy air, however briefly.
For the arrangement, I started with an old, green-glazed pitcher that was collecting dust on my shelf, somewhat nondescript but perfect in its mottledness. Besides, pitchers are great for arranging flowers: A good choice for the novice, their form easily shapes floral designs into satisfyingly open displays. To convey the lushness of the trees in this painting, I massed field pennycress in the pitcher. Though I got mine from a flower market, it can be found along roadsides or in fields in northern parts of the U.S. this time of year. I could have easily left the arrangement like that but, in keeping with Mr. Hockney's painting, I added a hit of the large orange flowers of asclepias 'Beatrix' to represent the glowing patch at its horizon line. Finally, I poked in some mauve astrantia major 'Rubra' from my garden to depict the old country road that had become Mr. Hockney's makeshift open-air studio.
No comments:
Post a Comment