It depicts a swimming pool beside a pavilion, disturbed by a splash of water created by an unseen figure who has apparently just jumped in from a diving board.
Using abstracted shapes of flat colour with sharply defined edges, at the centre of a large canvas with an unprimed border, Hockney depicts the fleeting moment just after a diver has entered the water of a swimming pool from a diving board, throwing up white spray.
Hockney delighted in taking weeks to carefully paint the heavily worked spray using small brushes, freezing this dramatic detail in time, an event which had only lasted a short moment.
Hockey's series gradually simplifies and abstracts the composition, cropping the scene, and removing the people, pool furniture, scenery, and other distractions.
The pavilion has a white wall and grey roof, with a curtain and reflections in its large sliding glass doors.