‘I think longevity is a by-product of a harmonious life. What makes for a harmonious life differs from person to person, but I think there must be some harmony in it if you live to be older: you find your own rhythm.’ — David Hockney
I am currently re-reading David Hockney and Martin Gayford’s great book Spring Cannot Be Cancelled. I have recommended this book so many other times, and I would recommend it even more after the second reading a year later. There are several important lessons I am revisiting not only about the art and craft of drawing, but most importantly, about the relentless practice of being an artist: a way of life looking deeper into the beautiful world that surrounds us, seeing beyond the evident and capturing these impressions one way or another.
Almost towards the end, there is a very interesting chapter titled Everything flows. I read and read again this one. To me, this chapter is one of the most important chapters in the book, and the one that compels the big picture of what practicing any creative art means.
These are three ideas and some key lines I have found relevant in this chapter, together with some of my thoughts around them:
1
The working artist
‘I’ve done at least one drawing a day, often two, sometimes almost three. That’s an average of more than one a day. I don’t even take a nap in the afternoon, because I get a lot of energy from work, a lot of energy.’ — David Hockney
A popular belief is that artists are in general lazy, chaotic, and self-indulgent. Hockney paints a different picture of what an artist's life is, very much aligned with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: an artist who is disciplined, has a daily routine, and lives a quiet but productive existence. A working artist.
Hockney was lucky enough, as he points out, to have been a professional artist: ‘I can honestly say that, for the last 60 years, every day I’ve done what I want to do. (…) just painted and drew every single day.’ He often portrays himself as a picture-maker (‘my job is to make pictures’).
Recently, I read about the vast production Picasso left after he passed away. It made me think about the compounding value of work and practice, and the fact that not coincidentally, most of these so-called geniuses are indeed just regular, maybe a bit more talented than others, people who were mostly obstinate, obsessed, and determined to do what they loved doing. Not just think about it, or dream it in a wishful way, but really doing it.
2
A beautiful world
‘The world is very, very beautiful if you look at it, but most people don’t look very much, with an intensity, do they? I do.’ — David Hockney
Looking at the world with an intensity involves being present in the moment, paying attention to our surroundings, reading the room, or the landscape, and rooting our presence in the now.
Looking harder comes with practice as much as with awareness. What we give attention to in our lives is what ultimately becomes our reality. Hockney is an advocate for paying attention to little, mundane things, noticing the beauty of nature and reality. Exercising that muscle will make us in return notice more and more. His recurring themes include water, splashes, rain, sunrises, blossoms… It’s about being present: ‘What is stress? (…) It’s worrying about something in the future. Art is now’, Hockney states.
3
The transcience of things
‘Everything is in flow. (…) “You have got to keep painting because it is constantly altering”. Well, it is actually, because we are. It’s permanent flux.’ — David Hockney
There is only one thing certain in life: change. ‘It’s changing all the time — all the time.’ There’s been a lot written about the philosophy around the line you cannot step into the same river twice and about the impermanence of things, thoughts, matter. I think accepting the transcience of things is one of the biggest steps toward living a more compelling creative life. It also pushes us to not conform to any outcome, and to be more agile in capturing the passing of time and the changeable state of the world in our sketchbooks: ‘But everything is moving in a van Gogh painting too, isn’t it? You just need to keep still and look at it. I think my pictures have time in them. They’re always flowing, always, just as nature’s always flowing.’
Happy reading! 📚✨
Ana
📚 What I’m reading in August 2023:
Ways of Drawing. Artists’ Perspectives and Practices by The Royal Drawing School. Delightful book I bought at Foyles in London when I came back for a couple of weeks last June.
Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking. I have always been fascinated and interested in physics and the stars. This short book brings some light to those big life questions in a digestible and not-too-technical way. Food for our imagination.
Spring Cannot Be Cancelled by David Hockney and Martin Gayford. Currently re-reading this fantastic book, getting ready for the Arrival of Spring in Auckland.