Colour is a joyful thing

My weekly letter to you

Dear friends,

This week’s spiral is a little wonky as I wrote it on the train down to London. It was inspired by a beautiful light show I saw projected onto York Minster on a cold, dark Wednesday evening.

As we came around the corner, people were huddled together in the narrow street that leads to the South Piazza, all gazing up at the fractals of coloured light.

We loved the angels’ wings sprouting from the carved stone columns and these hands descending in blessing.

This week, I found myself experimenting with a variation on ‘thank you,’ using the idea of ‘praise.’

In London, this evening, on a little half-day holiday, I have just been lucky enough to see David Hockney’s brilliant new show Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) at the new immersive Lightroom.

These pictures do not even begin to do it justice. It’s a celebration of colour, narrated by the artist himself and full of his wry humour and thoughts on life and art, including a very thought-provoking ‘lesson on perspective’.

I’ve always found Hockney inspiring - both his work and his joie de vivre. A native of West Yorkshire like me (I love his paintings of Yorkshire landscapes and trees), he’s still making art at the ripe old age of 85, often on his iPad (or sometimes 12 iPads at the same time…)

Here’s one of my favourite quotes from the exhibition:

Colour is a joyful thing.

I want my art to be joyful, actually…

- David Hockney

This seems like a very worthwhile goal. To make joyful art and perhaps, along the way, to be able to share that joy with others.

Here’s another Hockney quote:

The world is very, very beautiful when you look at it. But most people don’t look.

Wishing you a weekend of colour and some time to slow down and look at the world.

With love,
Sophie x