British pop art pioneer David Hockney unveils iPhone artworks

Venerable British visualartist David Hockney has embraced a new tool for his artistic creation, unveiling on Thursday a new exhibit featuring artwork created on his iPhone.

The 71-year-old painter said invested in the popular, high-speed internet-enabled, media-playing, touchscreen cellphone just four months ago, but has created a host of drawings including landscapes, portraits and images of flowers on it.

His exhibition Drawing In A Printing Machine, which opened at London's Annely Juda Gallery on Thursday, features iPhone drawings as well as other pictures created on his computer and with a camera. The 10 landscapes and 18 portraits will remain on display until July 11.

"Whoever would have thought that the telephone would bring back drawing?"he quipped to British media, adding that his iPhonetrick was to "stroke the screen very softly."

He also said he enjoyed drawing flowers and emailing them to friends. "My flowers last!" he said.

The influential Hockney, a pioneeron the British pop art scene,has experimented with different media in his work over the years. He has used photography, for instance, creating photo-collages or montages with Polaroid snapshots, and created drawings using the computer graphics software Quantel Paintbox.

In 2007, he unveiled his largest painting ever a massive landscape entitled Bigger Trees Near Warter that was made up of dozens of smaller canvasses and based on the East Yorkshire region of his childhood at London's Royal Academy of Art.