This video is an outtake from David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, an award-winning documentary by filmmaker Bruno Wollheim.
Watch the full film here: vimeo.com/onde...
With his LA office eight hours behind, David liked to refer to living in Bridlington, or “Brid”, as “on location”. He’d bought the house with his sister Margaret so she could look after their mother there, adding a studio in the attic for when he’d come visit at Christmas. After his mother’s death in 1999, David would come to see Margaret and her partner Ken Wathey, re-acquainting himself with the countryside where he’d worked as a farm labourer during his school holidays. A summer of watercolours of the landscape had followed, the next year he started painting in oils, by the summer of 2006 he had the house to himself and a plan to record the Wolds at his doorstep. He was describing and channelling Nature’s Life Force.
The three years he’d estimated he’d need to document the seasonal changes would in the end require another six, making these Yorkshire years the most sustained, settled and productive of his entire career. For David chance and serendipity had always played a part in his life adventure, likewise a sharp eye for opportunity. This Yorkshire period would end abruptly with the death of his assistant and friend Dominic Elliott, in tragic and mysterious circumstances.
Filmed over three years with unprecedented access, A Bigger Picture captures Britain’s most beloved painter at work. David Hockney’s return from California to paint the East Yorkshire landscape of his childhood - outside, in all weathers, through the seasons - culminates in the largest picture ever made outdoors. It’s an inspiring story of a painter in creative dialogue with nature and photography, and a revealing portrait of Britain’s most popular and celebrated artist.
“This wonderful film … will be of lasting importance for future generations who want to understand Hockney’s art.” Saturday Review, BBC Radio 4
“Bruno Wollheim’s portrait of this forthright magus is an unqualified, life-enhancing joy from start to finish.” - The Sunday Times
“This film may well be the best anyone will ever make about Hockney’s process.” - The Times, London.
“As gently hypnotic and fulfilling as one of Hockney’s own works.” - Time Out
“This impressive documentary is almost cinematic in its scope… both majestic and intimate” - The Observer
Watch the full documentary here: vimeo.com/2248...
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