The Arrival Of Spring In Woldgate, East Yorkshire In 2011 (twenty eleven) - 27 April

A background of acid green leaves contrasts with a pair of trees in the foreground whose branches are bare despite the date, and while spring has sprung in the woods and the flowers, the two leafless trees act as a kind of memento mori of the winter just gone. The foreground of this print is dominated by a slice of path or track dappled with shadow as well as many weeds and wildflowers that border it. The sky is a kind of violet blue which complements the greenery.

One of 49 studies of the Yorkshire countryside drawn by David Hockney on an iPad which run from the 1st of January to the 2nd of June, 27th April is an homage to the artist’s homeland and the tradition of landscape painting in English art. Having returned recently from California, where the light and the seasons are vastly different, Hockney embarked on this project in order to document the many changes in his surroundings that pass from winter to summer. Compiled together the work became the subject of an exhibition at the Royal Academy in London which included one monumental oil painting and 51 of the iPad drawings as prints. These were later split to form 49 prints at a smaller size in an edition of 25 – of which 27th of April is one – and a group of 12 in a larger size in an edition of 10.