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.

_An exploration of the vivid watercolour and ink sketches that Hockney made in his home county, Yorkshire
_Features a range of stunning images, some with vast, panoramic spans and others depicting rooted, familiar locations
_A short but enlightening insight into Hockney's creative process

About the Author:

David Hockney CH RA is an internationally acclaimed artist. He studied at Bradford School of Art from 1953 to 1957 and at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1959 to 1962. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1963, and now splits his time between America and East Yorkshire, where he grew up.