Hockney's inspiration: the idylls of his youth

Decades before finding international fame as a pioneer of the British pop art movement, David Hockney felt creatively drawn to the dramatic East Yorkshire landscape of his birth.

Having worked close to the land as a farmhand near his hometown of Saltaire, he described the region as having "the sorts of wide vistas you get in the American West".

He later became synonymous with slick "swimming pool" paintings in the 60s and photographic collages in the 80s, but Hockney never lost his imaginative interest in the bucolic idylls of his youth.

Now, four years after he returned to find inspiration from these pastoral vistas, Hockney has completed his first oil paintings of the region.

The works, which are infused with memories and observations from his childhood, will be displayed in a new exhibition, David Hockney: The East Yorkshire Landscape, which opens on 11 June at Tate Britain. The paintings mark the artist's 70th birthday in July, and will include five large-scale works, each around 12ft long.

Hockney began painting the scenes in watercolour, which allowed him to work quickly in open air to capture the changing light and its effect on the land.

Returning to the area, Hockney approached the subject in oil, characteristically sitting for a couple of hours to absorb the landscape before picking up a paintbrush. His completed works depict the scenes in vibrant colour to convey the energy of the landscape.

The show will coincide with the BP Summer Exhibition, Hockney on Turner Watercolours, in June, which will showcase Turner's mastery of the medium, with contemporary insights from Hockney.