Renowned British artist David Hockney has been creating masterpieces using nothing more than his index finger and an iPad.

David Hockney's iPad art on display

At first glance, they look like they've been hand-painted on canvas. But these images have been created using nothing more than an iPad.

David Hockney has used the technology to come up with all sorts of original art work. He tackles faces and flowers, and everyday objects such as an electric plug.

Around 150 creations are on show at the De Young Museum in San Francisco - just a short drive from where the iPad was created.

The 76-year-old says he started drawing on his smartphone about five years ago.

"It began by just drawing on an iPhone and then all I did was send them out to friends," Hockney said.

Some of Hockney's landscape images have been blown-up to create giant wall-sized prints. He creates his work with an app called Brushes, which along with dozens of other programmes like Touch Sketch, SketchBook Mobile and Bamboo Paper, are being snapped up by artists, illustrators and graphic designers.

Together, the artists are developing a variety of new finger and stylus techniques.

Hockney says his hi-tech finger art is a lot quicker to create than using traditional methods: "I mean you can pick up a colour from another colour and you can work very fast."

Some of the images at the exhibition are even animated, so viewers can see them as they were created.

Art historians say that exhibiting iPad images by a prominent artist in a significant museum gives the medium a boost. They also say it helps digital artwork gain legitimacy in the notoriously snobby art world, where tablet art shows are rare and prices typically lower than comparable watercolour or oil paintings.

And Hockney himself is showing no signs of slowing down, with his iPad giving him renewed creative energy.

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