David Hockney has shared new iPad art from lockdown in his house in Normandy from where he has been writing to BBC arts correspondent Will Gompertz.

In isolation with his dog Ruby and two of his long-standing assistants, JP and Jonathan, David Hockney has been drawing the spring awakening, and has shared 10 new images an an animation with the BBC.

Attracted to Normandy after the success of his paintings of Spring in Yorkshire ten years previously, David Hockney bought a house with a large garden “Cheaper than anything in Sussex”, he wrote to Will Gompertz. “I began drawing the winter trees on a new iPad,” he said. “Then this virus started…”

See also: Huge Damien Hirst Exhibition Announced by Newport Street Gallery

“I went on drawing the winter trees that eventually burst into blossom. This is the stage we are right now. Meanwhile the virus is going mad, and many people said my drawings were a great respite from what was going on.”

After releasing an image of daffodils last month, titled Do Remember They Can’t Cancel the Spring, David hockney is now sharing more images as “A respite from the news… they are obviously made by the hand depicting the renewal that is the spring in this part of the world.”

The images include multiple sketches of David Hockney’s home in Normandy. “I intend to carry on with my work, which I now see as very important,” he said. “We have lost touch with nature rather foolishly as we are a part of it, not outside it. This will in time be over and then what? What have we learned? I am 83 years old, I will die. The cause of death is birth.

“The only real things in life are food and love in that order, just like our little dog Ruby. I really believe this and the source of art is love.

“I love life.”

See the full selection of David Hockney’s iPad paintings here.

See also: David Hockney Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery Shines Light on an Artist’s Life

David Hockney Painting ‘The Splash’ Sells For £23.1m