In this episode we see David Hockney, deep in his cubist phase, struggling to come to terms with this novel medium. It gives an insight into David's ideas and methods. His output is not necessarily the most striking (Sidney Nolan's efforts best utilise the graphic effect of the Paintbox) nor the most daring (Larry Rivers uses an imported photograph and tries to depict water), but they're certainly the most playful and imaginative of the series. It's not quite Le Mystere Picasso with a Yorkshire accent, but it's fascinating nonetheless.
In this episode the electronic paintbox is handed over to one of the major names in American contemporary art. Larry Rivers started his career in the late 50s, at the beginning of pop art. Since then he's become a sculptor, adaptor of found objects and photographs, and a portraitist of international repute. In his time he's also been a jazz musician, and a winner of the famous TV quiz The$64, 000 Dollar Question. During his two days on the Quantel Paintbox, Rivers uses found images - a cigar box, a holiday snap - to create delicate pictures, like watercolours. He also works from a live model - pop musician Green from the group Scritti Politti who sits for his portrait.
When British painter Howard Hodgkin, winner of the Turner Prize in 1986, first confronted the Quantel Paintbox, he found his own working methods were accelerated to an almost alarming degree. In his own studio, Hodgkin works, sometimes for years, on his own brilliantly-colourful, almost abstract, canvasses. Now, with the computerised brush and palette of the Paintbox, Hodgkin can achieve a 'painted' sketch in a matter of minutes. He responded to the challenge by using the computer to work out ideas for the sets and costumes for Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella - a commission from the Ballet Rambert.
Over a long and distinguished lifetime in painting, Sir Sidney Nolan has returned again and again to images of his native Australia, its landscape and its people. He's particularly remembered for his series of paintings about the life of notorious bandit Ned Kelly. Nolan became fascinated by the ability of the Quantel Paintbox to make stencils and cut-up images. He brought photographs and drawings to his sessions on the computer and used them to make a series of new and extraordinary collages on an Australian theme.
This week one of America's most original young painters is introduced to the electronic palette and brush of the Quantel Paintbox. Drawing directly on to the television screen, Jennifer Bartlett experiments with the computer to produce many variations on a theme, using only one simple model - a glass of water.
In the last of the series, painter Richard Hamilton, the father of Pop Art in Britain, explores the workings of the Quantel Paintbox. Since the 50s he has often drawn his inspiration from press photographs, magazines, adverts and television. A television news item about the blanket protesters in Northern Ireland was the starting point for his picture The Citizen that now hangs in the Tate Gallery. In tonight's programme he uses the Paintbox to work on his ideas for a companion painting, an emblem of the Protestant Orange Order in Northern Ireland.