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 roo
