"David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020"

On 6th April 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was beginning to sweep through the UK, I wrote about a poignant new artwork by David Hockney to welcome in the spring. Drawn on an iPad, it shows a crop of bright yellow daffodils with the title “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring” .... see here.

Yesterday I visited the exhibition David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Apart from seeing “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring”, there were 115 other paintings from the period 11^th February 2020 to 4^th July 2020 and showing the arrival of spring in the rural landscape of Normandy around Hockney’s property.

These works coincided with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic when the UK and much of the world went in to strict lockdown. In stark contrast to the anxiety, fear and dreadful consequences for so many people, Hockney’s focus on the emergence of spring is a celebration of that season, a season of re-birth and hope in the natural world.

Seeing the exhibition and Hockney’s paintings reminded me of the arrival of spring in 2020 at my local patch sites around St. Nicholas Church and at Noak Bridge Nature Reserve. Apart from providing an opportunity to seek some solace and release from the unfolding Covid-19 health crisis, it enabled me to take note of the almost daily changes in the environment and nature, something that I had never done before.

It was a stunningly beautiful spring in 2020. It was warm and sunny with bright blue unpolluted skies. The natural world just got on and did its thing as it always does.

So Spring definitely wasn't cancelled.

The “great outdoors” was an unsung hero. More people noticed wildlife, they walked new areas close to home and they found enjoyment and peace in learning about the nature on their doorsteps.

Who knew that it would take a global health pandemic to make so many more of us appreciate what we have and what we are on the brink of losing.

The climate emergency has not gone away. It is getting ever more serious in terms of its immediate impacts and the long-term sustainability of life on Earth. The decrease in biodiversity and the inexorable march towards extinction for so many species has not gone away either. It too is getting ever more serious.

Humanity still consumes far too much and we are steadily destroying our planet and the biodiversity that we share it with.

We value what we have too little and we are running out of time to make the big changes in attitudes and behaviours that are essential to reshape our relationship with the planet, the environment and nature.

Although lockdowns and strict travel restrictions have ended, I have continued to visit both my local patch sites regularly and I have now experienced all the seasons including another spring. By doing so, I have come to more closely understand the seasonal rhythms and phenology and appreciate the local wildlife right on my doorstep.    

The Guardian - How David Hockney depicted a spring for self-isolationists

The Guardian - David Hockney urges us to escape lockdown through a pencil

Royal Academy of Arts - Covid and the comfort of nature

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚

Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature