David Hockney, Yorkshire Paintings, by A. Robert Lee

David Hockney, Yorkshire  Paintings

God knows, you’ve travelled landscapes.
Or riverscapes, hillscapes, flowerscapes. 

Across canvas, paper. By oil or wash.
Each the invitation to gaze, to prospect. 

Claude coast.
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Constable pond.

Van Gogh field.

Cézanne mountain.
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Now it’s dale, moor, riding.
English north. Plein Air Yorkshire.

You’ve been to California for the splash
You’ve seen the Ipad plants and vases.  

Now it’s the boy from Bradford.
Home again from Sixties to Postmodern.   

Just look at the Sledmere multi-colour.
Curvilinear brushstroke, pigment brilliance.  

Contemplate the Kilham watercolour.  
Parked street at rest in discreet white, pink.  

Level your eye at Huggate summer.
Fringe grass, sloped hill breasts.  

These, the others, speak memory.
Paths, wheatfield, bower, hill.

These, the others, speak colour.
Meadow, treetop, sunlight, snow.

These, the others, speak brush, palette.   
Hyper pastel, Hockney’s inside landscape. 

​A. Robert Lee

A. Robert Lee’s creative writings include Japan Textures: Sight and Word, with Mark Gresham (2007), Tokyo Commute (2011), Ars Geographica: Maps and Compasses (2012), Portrait and Landscape: Further Geographies (2013),Imaginarium: Sightings, Galleries, Sightlines (2013), Americas (2015), Off Course: Roundabouts & Deviations (2016), Password: A Book of Locks and Keys (2016), Written Eye: Visuals/Verse (2017), Alunizaje/Lunar Landings, with Blas Miras,  Writer Directory: A Book of Encounters (2019), Daylong, Nightlong: 24 Hour Poetry (2020), Suspicious Circumstances (2020), Time Travels (2022), Outside In: Hinges and Swivels (2022), Almost Patagonia (2023), and Everywhere You Look (2024).