A Yorkshire Sketchbook by David Hockney

In recent years David Hockney has returned to England to paint the East Yorkshire landscape remembered from his youth. Although his passionate interest in new technology has led him to develop a virtuoso drawing technique on an iPad, he has also been accompanied outdoors by the traditional sketchbook, an invaluable tool as he works quickly to capture the changing light and 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 convey the immediacy of Hockney’s impressions. And as in the views down village streets and across kitchen tables that appear alongside them, his rooted and fond knowledge of the Yorkshire Wolds is always clear. If you know the landscape there, the character of the sketches is unmistakable: if you don’t, it will come to life in these pages.