An uplifting celebration of spring and the power of art against lockdown: Hockney's new iPad drawings, in an intimate sketchbook format. At the beginning of 2020, just as global Covid-19 restrictions were coming into force, the artist David Hockney was at his new house, studio and garden in Normandy. From there, he witnessed the arrival of spring, and recorded the blossoming of the surrounding landscape on his iPad, a method of drawing he has been using for over a decade. Drawing outdoors was an antidote to the anxiety of the moment for Hockney – 'We need art, and I do think it can relieve stress,' he says. This uplifting publication – produced to accompany a major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts – includes 116 of the new iPad drawings and shows to full effect Hockney's singular skill in capturing the exuberance of nature. The book begins with an interview with the show's curator, Edith Devaney, in which Hockney discusses his heralding of the spring. AUTHOR: Edith Devaney is Contemporary Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. SELLING POINTS: . During the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, David Hockney was in Normandy, France, and recorded the arrival of spring in exuberant iPad drawings . Over a hundred new iPad drawings on display at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2021 . Published to accompany an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, 27 March – 20 June 2021 140 colour illustrations