A Picture

Two events happened last year which together make this a special picture for us. In April we went to see the David Hockney exhibition "A Bigger Picture" at the Royal Academy in London where we saw the original of this painting. In June we went to America and stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

When Hockney photographed the Grand Canyon in 1989 he commented '.....the thrill of standing on that rim of the Grand Canyon is spatial. It is the biggest space you can look out over that has an edge'. Hockney's painting places the viewer on the canyon's south rim at Powell Point in order 'to induce in the viewer the vertiginous thrill of standing on the edge of a precipice so deep and extensive that it almost defies the imagination'*

Both these events were very special and unforgettable experiences. This picture is on our living room wall but the images of Hockney's original painting and standing on the edge of the canyon will stay in our heads forever.

* Marco Livingstone (report for the National Gallery of Australia-1999)