David Hockney's Yorkshire

It might seem unlikely but the west coast of America and the east coast of Yorkshire have something in common. According to David Hockney, it's "big skies" and you get a sense of what he means at his new exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Better still, if you go to the Yorkshire Wolds, not only do you see what he means but you're also rewarded with an unheralded and unspoilt slice of England.

David Hockney: A Bigger Picture is both a celebration of the artist's return to his roots and of a subtle, spacious and remote landscape. Hockney once drew inspiration from the exotic climes of Los Angeles, but for several years he's been back in England, living and working in Bridlington (he was born in Bradford). Explaining what drew him to East Yorkshire and the Wolds, he said: "It's a landscape that I've known since childhood [he used to work in the fields and cycled the roads as a teenager], so it has meaning, but I never thought of it as a subject until 10 years ago. It is full of lovely little valleys and not many people."

Perhaps surprisingly, it's a region that never previously troubled great landscape painters such as Turner and Constable, but this exhibition at the Royal Academy, comprising some 150 works, the majority inspired by East Yorkshire and dating from the past four years (and quite a few from the past 12 months), shows the area in a new light.

Clearly Hockney, now 74, has been energised and enthused by the task, which has allowed him to explore his fascination with landscape and the seasons, and to capture them in a variety of media, from oil and watercolour to iPad, computer and on film.

I began my Hockney trail away from the Wolds in West Yorkshire at Saltaire, not far from Hockney's birthplace. Here Salts Mill, a beautifully restored Victorian textile mill, houses the world's largest permanent collection of Hockney's work.

The mill, a painting of which features in the RA exhibition, was the brainchild of Titus Salt, a Nonconformist mill owner and philanthropist who also built houses for his workers – still there and now privately owned – a fine Italianate church, a school, a hospital and a lovely park. Sobriety and hard work were all he asked in return.

In the 1850s, Salts Mill was the largest factory in Europe and the fact that it is still standing proud is down to the foresight of the late Jonathan Silver, an entrepreneur and friend of Hockney who bought the building in 1987 and created what it is today: a gallery and arts centre run by his family with several high-end shops, a restaurant and a smart café.

Like Hockney, Silver was born in Bradford and it was he who was instrumental in getting the artist to use Yorkshire as a subject once again. That was back in 1997 following a prolonged stay in his home county by Hockney, who then painted the Wolds from memory when he returned to Los Angeles.

However, it is not just the landscape that is eye-catching. As we wound our way through the lanes we passed a host of architecturally impressive villages, such as Lund (home of The Wellington, an excellent pub), South Dalton (where you'll find the Michelin-rated Pipe and Glass Inn, recently voted the UK's pub of the year, and St Mary's Church with a spire once described as "an arrow in the breast of the Wold"), Londesborough (fine parkland) and Warter (outside of which Hockney painted his vast canvas Bigger Trees Near Warter, currently on show at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford).

There are country houses too, none better than Sledmere House, owned by Sir Tatton Sykes, whose family have been important players in the region since the middle of the 18th century. Although gutted by a fire in 1911, the Georgian house was beautifully restored and Hockney, a friend of Sykes, celebrated his 70th birthday there.

Not to be outdone, the estate village of Sledmere itself is another attraction, with its immaculately kept red-brick houses and a fine pub, The Triton Inn.

Leaving Saltaire and heading across Yorkshire towards the Wolds – a crescent of chalk hills and dry valleys running from the Humber Estuary to Flamborough Head – you begin to discover what Hockney sees in the area: a "spatial experience", as he has put it.

Edith Devaney, co-curator of the RA exhibition, said the reason he left England was for "the light and space of America's west coast. Now he has come back and found it here." West Yorkshire may be wilder (and attract more people), but here on the east coast this undulating, manicured, arable landscape offers a kind of freedom and wide-open views, while the changeable weather, distinct seasons and light (because of the proximity to the North Sea) have also fuelled the artist's vivid imagination. It's also a region that Hockney defends passionately; last year saw him attacking plans to build several "ugly" wind turbines in the Wolds.

With many foot and cycle paths, it's not a difficult place to explore but we did it an even easier way – by car. In the company of two engaging locals, David and Susan Neave, historians and friends of Hockney, I headed for the particular spots that have inspired him, driving along Woldgate, a quiet country road, that has been a fruitful source of work: The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, for example, forms the centrepiece of the RA show and comprises one huge oil painting and 51 iPad prints.