Tick it, Tock it, Turn it True 1976 - 1977

David Hockney made this etching, “Tick it, Tock it, Turn it True,” using a plate. The process is so open, like a window into his thoughts. The layering of marks, the cross-hatching creating tones, it’s all there on the surface. Look how the lines build up, like he's thinking aloud with the needle. There's a looseness, a kind of playful geometry, especially in the floating, fragmented figure. It’s almost as if Hockney is deconstructing form, letting it hover between abstraction and representation. The colour palette is quite limited, mostly blues and pinks. The way he uses these subtle hues to define space and volume is fascinating. That sketchy, scribbled background could be anything. It’s really beautiful and reminds me of Cy Twombly's drawings, where the act of mark-making becomes its own subject. Ultimately, art is a conversation, a constant to-and-fro of ideas.