Works from the series The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire were first exhibited in A Bigger Picture, the artist’s landmark exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2012. The series follows the gradual changing of the season, from 1 January to 2 June 2011, and were popularly acclaimed. Although the works were executed on an iPad, sometimes taking two or three days to draw, Hockney’s intention was for them to be printed in a much larger format.

Each separate image depicts a specific day between January and June 2011 on the old Roman road to Bridlington, encouraging us to look closely at the natural world and take joy from it.

Hockney is acknowledged to be one of the greatest landscape artists of all time. His colouration is compared to Van Gogh and whose influence can be seen in the remarkable oil above part of which is reflected in May 17, notably the meadow/hedgerow.

Much like Claude Monet’s series of Haystacks, Hockney’s first set of iPad drawings represents an attempt to capture the nuanced changes that take place in a single landscape – from day to day, from hour to hour and even from minute to minute and in great detail.

These are major works even by Hockney’s standards.

“I do think the iPad is a new art form. Much better than a lithograph. Inkjet printing is more vivid—the colour stays exactly the same. The prints use an awful lot of pigment. But the bigger they get, they don’t fade, don’t pixelate."

David Hockney

An unspoilt agricultural region running south of the North York Moors and east of the Vale of York, this picturesque area is characterised by rolling chalk hills, dry valleys and red-brick villages. Although he used to return from LA to Yorkshire every year to spend Christmas with his mother at her home in the seaside town of Bridlington, Hockney only truly rediscovered the joys of the landscape when he returned in the late 1990s. After the clean lines of California, with its dazzling light and shadow, Hockney was struck on his drives through the Wolds by the drama of the seasons, the glorious colour gradations and daily changes in light and foliage.

In 17 May, Hockney delves deep into the glorious detail of nature. Sumptuous colour and crisp detail mark this image out as one of his best of the series. This is the glory of nature at our feet. With a background of a meadow and trees beyond, he serves up a cocktail of nature’s exquisite everyday meadow and hedgerow flowers. Red campion, bluebells and cow parsley shine out of a soft and sensuous blend of grasses, ivy and ferns.