Lillies
Signed Print

Drawn in a similar style to that of Coloured Flowers Made of Paper and Ink, Lilies 1971 presents us with a bunch of lilies in an elegant glass vase against a gridded or cross hatched background, accompanied by a pencil. In this work however Hockney pays more attention to the stems of the fowlers, outlining them in black and making sure to delineate them in the water contained by the vase which is an inky blue and is barely noticeable in companion print. The lilies themselves are beautiful flutes of white, their flower heads curling up away from the stems and the weight of the background, giving the composition an ineffable lightness. Hockney has been producing still lifes – and particularly studies of flowers – since he began making work in the early ’60s. Working across painting, drawing and printmaking he has embraced a number of different mediums to convey his love for the natural beauty of flowers and nowhere is this more evident than in his careful observation of their various elements or the way they interact with water, light and space. Nowadays he prefers digital drawings to produce these studies but it's easy to see the connection between these more contemporary works and the analogue methods that led to the evolution of his style.