David Hockney turns to Apple's new iPad as his instant art goes 'back to the future'

David Hockney, one of Britain's most influential artists, has taken to creating artworks with the new Apple iPad.
The results are immediate and there is no cost associated with shipping or hanging the works: He sends them out via email.
The Yorkshire artist's brushes and pencils stay in their drawer because his fingers are all he needs to get his ideas down on the device - which is not even available in Britain yet - and when he's finished, he can push a button and 'watch himself draw' on a playback.

Back to the future: Artist David Hockney, left, said the iPad was a device that took art back to the hand, rather than away from it

On one email/drawing he created this week he writes: 'It is thought that new technology is taking away the hand (I'm not so sure). If you look around a lot is opening up.'

He told the Evening Standard: 'The iPad is far more subtle, in fact it really is like a drawing pad. They will sell by the million. It will change the way we look at everything from reading newspapers to the drawing pad.
'It can be anything you want it to be. This is the nearest we have got to seeing what I would call a universal machine.
'What makes the iPad better than the iPhone is its larger size. The iPhone was more about the relationship between the hand and the ear whereas this is all about the hand and the eye and makes for far better co-ordination.

'What is also unique is that with the iPad you can actually watch a playback of your drawing. I have never watched myself actually drawing before.'
The iPad masterpieces were created using a £2.99 app for the iPhone and iPad called Brushes. A user's finger becomes a virtual brush on the iPad's touchscreen. Menus allow the painter to change colours and brush styles and zoom in and out of their picture. Finished pictures can then be emailed.
Hockney's experimental streak has seen him turn to cameras, faxes, printers, mirrors, oil, watercolour and pencil in creating new works. The iPad creations are a further step from the art he has been creating for several years using iPhones.
creating using his iPhone in recent years.