by Molly Price-Owen

See 'A Bigger Picture', gasp and prepared to be overwhelmed. The bright, brilliant colours,  the vibrancy and vivacity of the vivid images jump out from the walls of  the main galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts.  Spell-binding  and mesmerising.

This is no retrospective, which pleases Hockney enormously.

Almost  all the rooms are filled with recent work by the 74-year-old artist; much of it made within the past four years, a good deal in the past twelve months, although a few earlier pieces are included to provided context - for example the cool images of Californian life and Yosemite National Park, or the searingly hot pictures of the Grand Canyon, from the mid-60s (continues)

Just as Hockney revolutionised photographic  art with his awesome montages - hundreds of pictures overlapping each other to form one huge image - so he has transformed  landscape art.

Landscapes, Nature predominate: the artist wants us to see the bigger picture, both of the countryside around us and literally with the scale of the works on show. He brings us closer to the subjects, drawing us into the picture. Concerned with what Van Gogh called 'the infinity of nature' his recent work depicts a corner of Yorkshire that he examines with the same obsession as Monet with Giverny.

One gigantic picture covers the biggest wall in the gallery and measures a staggering 365.8x975.4 cm. 'The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate in 2011' is the centrepiece. (Woldgate being a road in the country outside Bridlington, East Yorks).  He evokes the 'floating feeling' of early Spring when the first leaves appear. The vegetation seems to move and grow with waves of energy in stunning greens, reds, purples and yellows.

A red path in the centre invites us into the wood to experience Spring, walk through the early flowers, then touch and smell the trees beyond. It's almost palpable, the effect is almost 3D.

This invitation is extended to many of his works - 'Come in, take a closer, a bigger look at Nature's grand performance and display'.  There are tunnels, roads and paths to explore with delight.

Hockney, born in Bradford, visited his late mother and sister who lived in Bridlington. After decades spent in California, he felt the pull of the countryside of his youth, so he made this seaside town his home.

This main room also comprises a sequence of 51 iPad drawings, but when Hockney agreed to do the exhibition, in 2007, the iPad didn't exist. The precursor was his iPhone and he began to draw on it with his thumb, using various Apps. He drew flowers every day, and then sent them to friends who were fortunate enough received fresh Hockney  blooms  daily! Then when the iPad was launched, Hockney moved to this larger tablet computer and pursued his production of digitally- aided drawings. He found its speed and versatility exciting and envigorating. He printed them out on a larger scale, and now they hang in the gallery. An excoriating delight for the vision, and many made especially for this exhibition.

In this wealth of Landscapes Hockney is making discoveries, boldly moving into territory nobody has explored before, and they express his love affair with the English countryside.

Another huge painting, 'Winter Timber' depicts the horizontal and vertical together: felled yellow and orange tree trunks appear to form part of the path leading us to the horizon, while the vertical trees form the corridor up which we are beckoned.  Again the colours burst with luminous intensity.

Sketchbooks and iPads are also on view, and a fascinating video film, where the artist set up nine cameras to film concurrently a walk through various landscapes: the result is eighteen moving pictures luring us into the woods, to persuade us to stroll along these enchanting wonderlands. This exhilarating  exhibition shows how Hockney has 're-landscaped' Landscape art:  It is an exuberance of colour, form, size but above all passion; a visionary experience (in both senses of the word), and highly arresting.

It should stop you in your tracks.

The exhibition runs at The Royal Academy in London from 21^st January - 9^th April

By Molly Price-Owen

It's going to be a busy year in 2012. Apart from the Olympics, we have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Charles Dickens is 200 years old. And the Royal Academy of Arts is looking forward to a cracking year with exciting new exhibitions on the horizon.

January, the Academy will present the first major exhibition in the U.K. to showcase David Hockney's landscape work; vivid paintings inspired by Yorkshire landscape, many large in scale and created specifically for the exhibition will be shown alongside related drawings, films and ipad drawings. Through a selection of around 200 works spanning fifty years  this display will be placed in the context of Hockney's extended exploration of and fascination with landscape.

In March the Academy will constitute a radical re-evaluation of the life and work of Johan Zoffany… not perhaps the best known of artists in the U.K., although, being born in Frankfurt (1733) he moved to London and adapted to the indigenous art and culture.

The exhibition will feature oil paintings and a selection of drawings, a number of which have been rarely or never exhibited before.

The famous annual Summer exhibition takes place in June - the world's  largest open art show.  It showcases work by both emerging and established artists in all media.

In July, Collectors Sterling and Francine Clark will loan 72 works : 'A TASTE FOR IMPRESSIONISM' . This comprises 72 exhibits, including 35 Renoirs, masterpieces by Manet, Monet, Pisarro, Degas among others.

'BRONZE'

comes in September: 150  global pieces from antiquity to modern day will be shown in a thematic arrangement. It will be totally cross culture ranging from

Asia, Africa and Europe: the medieval period offers rare survivals and the Renaissance too, in works of Donatello, Cellini among others.

Works by Rodin, Picasso, Giacometti, Moore will also be on display.

No such cross-cultural exhibition on this scale has ever been attempted.

I'm fortunate enough at the moment to be deep into working on a bicentenary radio programme for the BBC about Charles Dickens. So I'm happily enjoying Claire Tomalin's excellent new biography of the great Victorian novelist. HOWEVER I'm now 57% through and I'm getting an overwhelming feeling that I'm nearly finished.  I THINK that the remainder of the e-book is filled with photographs and footnotes etc Why don't I know? Well with Kindle the one thing I'm useless at is browsing. Once I've lost my place it can takes ages to get back to where I was.

So whereas the hardback reader will be able to gaze at contemporary images of Dickens as a young man, at Catherine his wife (I'm guessing now) I won't see these until I get there. It's bit like reading a manuscript except you can't look at any of the other pages before you actually get there. It's great for concentrating because there are simply no distractions.

But of course an e-book has one huge advantage. Its size. As I write I'm travelling on a train hurtling towards Exeter for a couple of interviews. So here is the enormous advantage - I'm pretty laden with recording gear not to mention overnight stuff and a change of clothes. My Kindle is safely tucked into my handbag and as soon as I finish this - I'll bring it out and enjoy finishing this highly recommended biography.

So yes, a Kindle is wonderful but it can be irritating. They need to sort out an internal light. You can't read in the dark without a torch just like an ordinary book and the speech to text voice is worse than Stephen Hawking. But I don't think publishers will abandon hard or paperbacks. You can't put an e-book on your book shelf and you certainly don't get the pleasure of lending one.

Well, for the moment at least it's unlikely that they'll get to see We are Three Sisters - Blake Morrison's superb drama about the Brontës using the Chekhov classic as a template.

It is simply that rare evening at the theatre from which you leave having learnt much and which lingers with you.  Produced by Northern Broadsides and directed by the company's founder and artistic chief Barrie Rutter, the play highlights the lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë living in the famous Haworth parsonage with their brother Bramwell and father Patrick. All three girls are of marriageable age and the discussion is of their worth in this world - whether to marry or work and if so what work, while unsuitable suitors come and go.

In order to have their own writing published the girls need to adopt male pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.  For those of us who have not made a study of their lives, we're reminded that women in the 19th century had few choices and ever fewer rights.    The sisters' genuine love for each other comes across warmly.  Catherine Kinsella as the wise Charlotte, Rebecca Hutchinson as the youngest, most beautiful Anne and although it seems slightly unfair to single out one sister, Sophie di Martino's  performance of the dark and surly Emily was particularly convincing. Perhaps Morrison just had more fun with her character. Oh and we loved Becky Hindley as Bramwell's married amour Mrs. Robinson (yes, really, the scarlet lady dressed in green).

As suggested in the title We are Three Sisters has many direct parallels with the Chekhov, perhaps not surprisingly since Chekhov was known to have read the Brontës and many experts have made the connection.

Chebutykin - the army doctor becomes the local medic in love with Anne -  the youngest Bronte, as Irene is the youngest Prozorov.

Koolyghin becomes the teacher (played by Rutter) and Vershinin translates into a curator who enjoys flirting with whichever sister happens to be in the room at the time. Yet although there are strong parallels, Morrison needs to abandon the template when history takes over and the girls do eventually travel to their capital city.

When Blake Morrison's latest book The Last Weekend was published  I was fortunate enough to interview on camera him for this site. Oh, how I wished I'd pressed him when I asked what he was working on at the time. When he mentioned the Brontë  project, I listened politely (must remember to have another listen to the outtakes)  I felt that perhaps I'd taken up enough of his day and it was time to leave him in peace.

Blake Marrison Image © Nicola Barranger

A big regret when I read about the back story.

The idea came from The Observer's theatre critic Susannah Clapp who suggested it to her friend Blake Morrison, who thought about it for years, she then mentioned it to my dear BBC colleague Beaty Rubens who happened to bring it up in conversation with Barrie Rutter who then (one presumes) went back to Morrison to say "great idea, do it". So ten years after it was first conceived, Northern Broadsides has a hit.

If you live in the Kingston area - grab it at the Rose Theatre before the end of the week. Sadly the show is coming to the end of the tour so you need to get to York Theatre Royal if you want to catch it next week. After that, who knows? Perhaps some enlightened theatre producer might just bring it to London.

The ladies of ancient Greece, in order to force a peace treaty to end the Peloponnesian War, withhold sexual favours from their men folk. Being a comedy, the men eventually have no choice but to agree. In Actors of Dionysus' latest offering at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, it is quite obvious how the men are feeling. We don't need to listen to their tortured anguish in long speeches - we can see it. In fact you can hardly take your eyes off..enormous thick, foot long (although who's measuring??) phallic limbs which are attached to both male actors. Perhaps this is why the company has suggested a 16+ age limit, which frankly I think is a shame, since the comedy is universal for most ages. Ok you woulnd't want to bring a young 10 year old but perhaps  Surrey audiences are a tad delicate.

Actors of Dionysus have to be applauded. This small Brighton-based company translates and adapts Greek drama for modern audiences, and not just your for your highbrow theatregoer looking for the origins of modern theatre in Greek drama. Their theatre is for everyone whether or not they've heard of Aristophanes. Being set in Greece David Stuttard who adapted the play, has been given a few wonderful opportunities to bring the show up to the minute - right down to the (almost) last line - "Shall we hold a referendum?". Although "Athens has money and always will" raised more than one eyebrow.

Yet main premise must be to entertain, and perhaps learn a bit about Greek drama along the way. Many congratulations to the cast of five.. The energy they put into throwing themselves around the stage for comic effects was exhausting for this audience member. Is Lysistrata on the university syllabi this year? Certainly there were plenty of young people in the audience last night. They probably wouldn't have wanted to watch one scene with their parents as Fanny (Marie Lawrence) teases her husband Dick (Joseph Wicks) complete with extra limg and refuses the favour. Yet they would certainly relate to the game show ending when Lysistrata finally gets the two sides to agree in a game show.

But the show demands crows of Athenians and warring Peloponnesians and has to do with just ……five actors. Typical of most non-commercial shows these days, a company has to perform with minimal costs. This show could certainly do with more cast members (careful!!) but one suspects that the funds just ain't there. Yet AoD needs audiences to keep the craft alive and for that they deserve huge applause. Arts Council funding is unlikely to increase in the near future, yet  AoD carries on regardless. I'm very much looking forward to their next show - rumour has it that it could be Medea. Meanwhile there is significant debate to be had about how talent in the UK continues to be innovative despite diminshing funds.  The arts council needs to encourage this sort of work, to inspire new generations to maintain the reputation of innovative theatre in UK to be the best in the world.

Lysistrata continues at the Rose Theatre in Kingston until 11Nov.

Tickets £8.00 to £15.00

www.rosetheatrekingston.org

For their latest production, The Rose Theatre in Kingston has turn to Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, the classic comedy which has been staged by  professionals and amateurs alike  the world over, in venues no doubt considerably smaller than Kingston's three year old theatre. Director and head honcho of the Rose, Stephen Unwin knows that the lovely and perfectly formed Jane Asher (Lady Bracknell) is going to bring in a large fan base to fill the 900 odd seats. But even she would admit she is no Edith Evans whose vocal arpeggios characterised the film version of 1952. Asher looks terrific and her cake-making career has not altered her waist size in the slightest.  Asher's Bracknell is more of a young Thatcher, determined to use the famous handbag to whip the young men into her view of what social order should be.

But with Bruce Mackinnon as Algernon, the stage ain't big enough for his wonderfully camp performance. Not quite over the top, was he personifying Wilde himself? A couple of times, I wondered whether he'd escaped from a production of Toad of Toad Hall, despite Mackinnon being tall and slim.  Yet by the second act, he'd  completely  won me over.

Bruce MacKinnon (Algenon) & Daniel Brocklebank (Jack) Photo - Alastair Muir

Maybe London at the end of the 19^th century was full of extravagant and camp gays who had to marry to stay in society. After all, as Unwin's excellent programme notes tell us, the opening night of Earnest was  a mere fortnight before events took place which led to Wilde's very public downfall.

For me the biggest treat was to hear Wilde's wonderful put downs critising London's small minded society, which pepper the script and which are all beautifully executed by Unwin's cast. Besides the wonderful and much parodied "to lose one parent might be considered a misfortune.." line which is still being personalized over 100 years later, there are dozens of wonderful,  half forgotten critiques throughout. For example Lady Bracknell

"Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London Society is full of women of the highest birth who of their own free choice have remained 35 for years.  Lady Dumbleton is an instance in point. To my own knowledge she's been 35 ever since she arrived at the age of 40 which is many years ago now."

Other lovely performances were given  by Kirsty Besterman as Gwendolen who commanded the stage magnificently and Jenny Rainsford who presented Cecily as her professional debut. No doubt we'll see more of her in the future. With Daniel Brockelbank as an frenetic and impatient Jack, Ishia Bennison as a delightful Miss Prism and Richard Cordery as Chasuble this Importance is another excellent landmark for the Rose and worth catching while it performs until 30^th October.

The National Theatre's idea of Double Feature in the Paintframe, is as good as any..

And maybe like starting with a short story collectdion very near the end of the book, we watched the second pair of shows and frankly loved it.  And here we are trawling the Internet trying to find a good review … and failing. But sticking to our guns (and there were plenty of those in the second play) we reckon that maybe the mistake is with the planning committee. Perhaps the order of the two sets of plays didn't quite work.  Without having seen DF1 we can't argue with the reviews, but we take issue with a couple of notices for DF2.

Stephanie Street in Nightwatchman

Nightwatchman by Prasanna Puwanarajah (who incidentally is appearing next door at the National in Emperor and Galilean) is a one woman performance by Stephanie Street playing Abirami who has been called up for the British Women's Cricket team at Lords. Practising against a bowling machine in the indoor nets, the 45 minute speech tells of a British Sri Lankan  yougster growing up in a troubled relationship with her father and her passion for the game. Henry Hitchings in the Evening Standard argues that the monologue is "steeped in recondite references and packs in too much". I disagree. Yes a working knowledge of the Tamil Tigers' war against the Sri Lankan government would have helped, but there is nothing that your average NT theatre goer wouldn't have been able to cope with. Stephanie Street's performance was terrific, full of wit and flashes of brilliant timing although a few quieter moments would have meant more light and shade for this theatre goer.

Nightwatchman might have seen the light of day as a radio play. Did playwright Puwanarajah have personal experience of a parent who had trouble with his Tamil/British identity and a brother who committed atrocities with the Tigers? Possibly not, yet in the white middle class audience it was difficult to bring up the conversation about Tamil identity in the interval.

And let's hear it for the sound team at the National! Imaginary balls are bowled at great speed, it's perfectly obvious where they pitch and how she plays each one to different parts of the field. Even when ball beats bat, the nets magically react.  Fabulous stagecraft - can anyone tell us how it was done? We found ourselves sitting dangerously at forward short leg. (So my husband tells me).

Second half brought us to There is War by Tom Basden -  about the futility of conflict which for me at least had a "Good soldier Svejk meets Alice in Wonderland"  feel to it. The country is at War. The Greys are fighting the Blues. That's all one needs to know. OK, perhaps once the idea is set, ("Do you think it will help my career if I kill myself?") it did drive the point home with a unsubtle hammer, and might have come straight from the Edinburgh Fringe but it's an idea the director Lyndsey Turner had enormous fun with. The black comedy is surreal as Dr. Anne (Phoebe Fox) goes on a picaresque attempt to find the hospital where she can actually do some work - and when she gets there?

Oliver Birch in There is War

Well that would be giving away a satisfying ending. It would be slightly unfair to highlight one performance but Oliver Birch's troop entertaining Stewart de Lune, was delightfully daft and simultaneously tragic.

Don't be put off by the benches. Unless you have a serious back problem or are over 2 metres tall,they fine.

Double feature 1 & 2 runs  in The Paintframe  until 10^th September

Photos - Johann Persson

One of the Kindle's greatest features is the ability to download a "free sample". They send you just enough for you for you to get hooked enough to want to read more -  very clever since you can download in seconds, and bingo! You've bought the book.

On the downside of this however was just HOW easy it is to make a purchase.  Maybe a little too easy. That may seem a contradiction but when searching for a specific title (in my case - Africa Junction by Ginny Baily) to my horror I'd discovered that I'd bought Continental Evolution: The Geology of Morocco: Structure, Stratigraphy, and Tectonics of the Africa-Atlantic-Mediterranean Triple Junction for £77.80 !

Until you are quite familiar with the layout, it is more than simple to hit the "buy" button inadvertently. Fortunately Amazon is mustard keen to bring this product into mainstream reading that they've made it just as simple to cancel, even if you do need to go online to do so.  But not before I needed a stiff drink to recover.  You definitely get slight "big brother" feeling since unlikely just about every other customer service department, Amazon is white hot onto your case to please.

But you certainly slip through the book, turning pages is remarkably quick and it's useful to be able to decide on the font size. What I did miss though was (and this is going to sound quite daft) a sense of identity of the book. No front cover! No image of the writer! Half way through I couldn't remember the title!! Certainly if you download (as I did) on a whim) you may easily forget. Seeing people reading Kindles in public, I certainly miss nosing at the title.

It does have speakers and hopefully within a very short period of time, they'll want some high-class interviews with writers. But as for book v. Kindle? Well I'd say for the moment the book ain't threatened but being able to download a whole library of books, it wonderful for reading on the move. Pity I can't afford two copies of each book - now that would be my ideal.

Do you use a Kindle? What do you think? Do let us know - drop us a quick line!

But back to the phwah phwah drinks at Waterstone's in Piccadilly, heart of London's book buying community. First person I see is an old mate from BBC days, whom I knew had been writing on the commute between Brighton (on the south coast) and Broadcasting House (in central London), but whom I hadn't realised had published nine novels. So here is the formal apology to Chris Paling. I owe you Chris, we need to get you on the site and your book Nimrod's Shadow.

And then amongst the writers was Lindsay Clarke for The Water Theatre whom we interviewed last year . It is beautifully written and stays with you a long time after you've finished. A lovely gentleman to boot, there he was with his publishers (Alma Books) tapping me on the shoulder to say hello.

Most of the other writer were also there, all of whom I'd love to interview, but sadly one needs a parallel life to fit it all in.

Other news is that Michael Arditti's interview is now on the site and we are really looking forward to interviewing Justin Cartwright next week about Other People's Money. Now if you want to understand what goes on in the minds of top bankers as they spend the dosh from the title, get yourself a copy. We've interviewed him before (audio only, so do we do video this time?) so it's lovely that he is happy for me to invade his office a second time. We have to formally thank our BBC colleague Mike Popham for introducing us to Justin.

Lord (Brian) Rix and Gus Garside, both high profile individuals in the world of learning disability, were discussing the need for more opportunities in the arts for learning disabled performers.

Lord Rix enlightened us about his career with MENCAP, at the arts council and also about the work of  Dr. John Langdon Down,  a pioneer of integration of those who in the 19^th century were labelled "idiots", Gus Garside's contribution focussed on the history of learning disabled  artists over the centuries (just think of the Kings' Fools)  and how individuals enrich the arts word today - I, for one, am looking forward to seeing Mind the Gap at Hampton Court on 23-25^th July 2011

As an interviewer I could have asked questions for another hour, but this wasn't the platform so a couple would have to do. Gus Garfield suggested that it's agents and writers who need more understanding if we are to see earning disabled artists performing mainstream. One artist who enraptured the audience at the Rose was Jez Colborne - Garside played a short video of him playing jazz piano.

In his chat Lord mentioned his 80^th birthday " a few years ago" - which of course demanded the question: Well how old is he? It is extremely difficult to believe the numerous searches I did online to confirm  - that Lord Rix was born in 1924 which makes him an astonishing 87. Sporting hyper bright red socks (and constantly pulling at his razor sharply pressed trousers indicated he was more than proud of them), he would easily pass for 15 years younger.

What bothered me most about the event, was that there was little to indicate exactly what the talk was to be about. I counted barely 24 souls in the vast Rose auditorium which was an enormous shame, since it's just this sort of debate that the arts world needs and that general audiences would find enlightening.

Ian Brown, Professor of Drama at Kingston University introduced the session saying that it was experimental and that this was the second of five.

Next week (11^th May) I am looking forward to hearing Sandy Nairne, director of the illustrious and much loved National Portrait Gallery on stage. What he will talk about to entice me to keep my commitment remains a mystery.