A man viewing at an exhibition at Salts mill - David Hockney- A Year In Normandie landscapes, part of the Saltaire Festival 2022

David Hockney’s A Year in Normandie displayed in the roofspace of Salts Mill in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, with visitors walking beside the long, brightly coloured panoramic frieze. The work is a composite iPad painting made from drawings Hockney created in Normandy during 2020 and 2021, translating a year of garden views, trees, hedges, clouds, paths, fields and seasonal change into a continuous paper installation. At 90.75 metres, it was described by exhibition organisers as Hockney’s biggest ever picture, and the scale is clear as the artwork recedes beneath the old timber roof of the former textile mill. The photograph has added editorial significance following the reported death of David Hockney in June 2026, because the scene captures one of his late-career experiments with digital drawing, colour, landscape and immersive viewing. Hockney, born in Bradford in 1937, remained closely associated with Yorkshire after decades of work in London, Los Angeles, Bridlington and France. Salts Mill, a former industrial landmark in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Saltaire, has long been one key place where visitors encounter his art near where he grew up and studied. The picture is useful for editorial stories about Hockney’s legacy, British art, contemporary landscape painting, iPad art, digital creativity, Yorkshire culture, Saltaire tourism, gallery exhibitions, heritage regeneration and the continuing public affection for one of Britain’s most recognisable artists. The mural-like work records the quiet observation of nature during a difficult pandemic year, but its greens, blues, clouds and garden forms feel optimistic and calm. The visible visitor gives a sense of human scale, while the roof beams and long exhibition wall show how a Victorian mill became a modern cultural space. This image can illustrate how Hockney’s later work extended beyond traditional canvas into print, technology, panoramic display and direct public experience.