A Yorkshire Sketchbook

In recent years David Hockney has returned to England to paint the landscape of his childhood. East Yorkshire’s stern hillscapes, craggy drystone walls and endless windswept moors make for a stimulating muse, and Hockney’s work captures the character of this scenery with expert precision.

Although his passionate interest in new technologies has led Hockney to develop a virtuoso drawing technique on an iPad, he is still regularly accompanied by a trusty sketchbook. This invaluable tool allows him to work quickly, capturing the changing light and the fleeting effects of the weather. Executed in watercolour and ink, these panoramic scenes have the spatial complexity of finished paintings: the broad sweep of sky or road, the patchwork tapestry of land. Yet unlike a painting completed in the studio, far-removed from the landscape that inspired it, these sketches convey the immediacy of Hockney’s impressions. And as indicated by views down village streets and across kitchen tables, his rooted local knowledge and fondness for the area around the East Yorkshire Wolds always shines through.

If you know the region, the location of these sketches is unmistakable. If you don’t, its features will come to life in these pages, animated by Hockney’s incomparable skill.