London - Leading British contemporary artist David Hockney has said he is furious with tree-fellers who chopped down an ancient forest he had planned to paint in all four seasons.

Hockney, 71, had completed the winter and summer paintings of trees near his home in Yorkshire, northern England, but was shocked to find just sawn trunks and discarded branches when he arrived to do his study of spring, the Guardian reported Friday.

He described was a saw as a "massacre ... like a scene from the first world war," said the Guardian.