Back to: Paper Pool
David Hockney's Day Pool with Three Blues (Paper Pool 7), 1978 presents another interpretation of the swimming pool motif that became synonymous with the artist's work. Executed in coloured, pressed paper pulp, the composition adopts a symmetrical viewpoint, drawing the eye along a bright yellow diving board towards the centre of a vivid blue swimming pool. Hockney divides the water into contrasting shades of blue, creating a strong sense of depth while using speckled paper fibres to suggest the ever-changing texture of the pool's surface. The surrounding purple paving, emerald green lawn and dense hedgerow frame the composition, reinforcing the clean geometric structure that characterises many of Hockney's Californian landscapes.
Rather than relying on traditional printmaking techniques, Hockney collaborated with Kenneth Tyler at Tyler Graphics to construct Day Pool with Three Blues (Paper Pool 7) from layers of coloured, pressed paper pulp. This innovative process gave the work a tactile surface and allowed colour to become embedded within the paper itself, producing subtle tonal variations that could not be achieved through conventional printing. As one of the largest works in the Paper Pools series, the composition demonstrates Hockney's continual interest in experimenting with new materials while simplifying familiar subjects into bold arrangements of colour, form and perspective.
