NEVER HEARD OF HIM ! (Sorry no pictures)

Jenny Freckles (click on her name for the link to her blog) has posted a blog about David Hockney and his art exhibition in London.  He is a somewhat controversial artist.  Many who know art much better than I call him a pop artist.   But I like a lot of his work – not all of it, but especially the scenes of Yorkshire.  I had never heard of him until about twelve years ago when I came across him almost by accident.

Even though it happened only about twelve years ago, it is amazing how far technology has come in that short space of time.  In my early computer days I built a website, with the help of my son, all about Flamborough, the little village where I had grown up and which I loved so much.  Today you can go on the web and find masses of photographs and information about that little fishing village.  It was not so when this event took place. For me at that time, it was as if I were the only person in the world who knew of the village and if I didn’t go back and visit, the whole place might vanish away as a figment of my imagination. Back then I was so hungry for news about Flamborough, I was almost obsessed.

 

One day I received an e-mail from someone who lived on Flamborough Head. The man’s name was Paul Hockney and he had seen my website and was just touching base with me to say that he lived only a few hundred yards away from where I had lived as a teenager.  I was so excited to be able to write to someone who actually lived there! I could hardly believe it.

The day after receiving Paul’s e mail I was skimming through the TV channels and hit upon the middle of a program about someone who had painted huge scenes of Yorkshire.  Because I also love Yorkshire (Flamborough is in Yorkshire) and I liked to paint, I stopped channel surfing and watched the program.  As the artist was speaking about his paintings I noticed that he had a Yorkshire accent.  I was all the more intrigued. 

When the program ended, the artist’s name came up on the screen as, David Hockney.  That didn’t mean a thing to me. I had no idea who he was. But as I was thinking about it, it suddenly it dawned on me:  wasn’t my e-mail friend from Flamborough called Hockney? Of course he was!  I quickly e-mailed Paul and asked if he were any relation to David.  He must have smiled to himself when he realized I had no idea who David Hockney was, because even back then he was famous most places in the world. 

You have probably guessed by now that Paul was David’s brother.

 

What a coincidence! If I hadn’t caught that TV program and Paul hadn’t written the day before, I would probably never have made the connection.

I have never told this story on my blog out of privacy for Jean and Paul, but they have now moved away from Flamborough so privacy is no longer a concern.

So that’s my connection to the famous artist whose paintings sell for millions of dollars !

No, I haven’t met David, but I do enjoy most of his paintings. We have been back to Flamborough  quite a few times since that first e–mail from Paul and enjoyed getting to know him and Jean over dinner in a couple of Flamborough’s finest pubs and worshiping with them at the Sewerbty Methodist Church.

It’s a small world and computers just make it smaller.  So drop over and visit Jenny.  She takes the most remarkable photographs.