A walk in Hockney's Yorkshire

Joyful zingy colours, exuberant strokes and large formats typify David Hockney's exciting take on the rolling landscapes of his home county. Chris Gee walks the Yorkshire Wolds Way in search of the views that inspired the influential artist

- Chris Gee

Yorkshire may seem worlds away from the sun-drenched poolsides of California where David Hockney found inspiration for the aquamarine-hued Y works that first brought him international fame in the '60s and '70s. But these peaceful, rolling Yorkshire Wolds landscapes have lived in the Bradford-born artist's imagination since boyhood, sparking years of exciting and intense creativity. His work has made the Yorkshire Wolds famous, as the subject of striking watercolours, richly coloured paintings and vivid iPad drawings.

Born in 1937, Hockney spent his teenage summers working as a farm hand in the fields around Huggate. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Art in 1962 and travelling to the USA, Hockney soon became famous for his pool paintings of California, becoming associated with the Pop Art movement of the time. He returned regularly to Yorkshire in the 1990s to visit his mother, but by the late '90s stayed for longer periods of time to capture the landscapes of his boyhood. Between 2004 and 2013, Hockney settled back in the seaside town of Bridlington and this gave him easy access to the Wolds' landscapes he found so fascinating.

During those years, Hockney was often seen out on the Wolds, working en plein air creating drawings, watercolours and oils. More recently, his painterly iPad works capture the essence of this beautiful and yet rarely visited corner of Yorkshire. Of the iconic dry valleys, Hockney said: "East Yorkshire, to the uninitiated, just looks like a lot of little hills. But it does have these marvellous valleys that are caused by glaciers, not rivers. So, it's unusual."

Today, the Wolds is known as 'Hockney Country' and there are online trails that guide you to the locations that inspired him. For a helpful itinerary, see visiteastyorkshire.co.uk.