The UK debut of Bradford-born artist David Hockney's new paintings of the East Yorkshire landscape was announced by Tate Britain today.

David Hockney: The East Yorkshire Landscape will mark the artist's 70th birthday in July and will include five large new paintings, each about 12ft long.

Mr Hockney is also helping to curate a major show of JMW Turner watercolours, which will open in the same month as his own exhibition.

The Turner display will be Tate's largest ever exhibition of the artist's watercolours and will include the recent £4.95 million acquisition The Blue Rigi (1842).

Mr Hockney is famous for his Los Angeles paintings such as A Bigger Splash and A Lawn Being Sprinkled.

But he has become fully absorbed by the landscape of East Yorkshire in the last four years and made it the primary source of inspiration for his art.

Attracted by the space and light of the area, he has compared it to "the sorts of wide vistas you get all the time in the American West". He first recreated the landscape in watercolour, which allowed him to work quickly in open air to capture the changing light.

But he now approaches the same areas in oil, while still painting primarily in situ.

After driving his loaded pick-up truck with easels, canvas and paints to his destination, Mr Hockney sits for a couple of hours absorbing the view before even picking up a paintbrush.

East Yorkshire first engaged his imagination as a teenager, when he worked on the land during summer holidays "stooking" corn.

Some of his new paintings have been shown in the US, but none have gone on display in the UK before.

The Turner show will feature 165 watercolours spanning his career.

Mr Hockney will help showcase Turner's groundbreaking watercolours with his own commentary on the work.

Highlights of the BP Summer Exhibition will include Turner's studies of the Thames, made on the spot in his sketchbooks.

It will also feature The Somerset Room at Petworth and watercolours made on the spot in Italy such as St Peter's from the Villa Barberini (1819).

Mr Hockney said: "Turner is one of the masters of watercolour. I am thrilled to be working with Tate on this major exhibition and to study in depth their extraordinary collection of Turner's watercolours. This is one of the most challenging mediums for an artist to work with."

Tate Britain director Stephen Deuchar said: "This is a rare opportunity for us to mount an exhibition of Turner's greatest watercolours.

"I am delighted that David Hockney has agreed to work with us on the exhibition.

"It will show the development of the virtuoso techniques that enabled Turner first to paint watercolours that could compete with oil paintings."

Both exhibitions open on June 11 at Tate Britain.

e-mail: newsdesk@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

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