There’s something about a David Hockney swimming pool that makes you want to step right into the picture. The blue water, warm light and quiet surroundings suggest an afternoon with nowhere else to be. It’s easy to see the appeal.

Hockney’s fascination with pools began after he moved to Los Angeles in 1964. California offered a whole new world of homes, landscapes and ways of living, and swimming pools quickly became a favorite subject. Even a pool advertisement in the newspaper could spark an idea for a painting.

Water gave him plenty to explore. How do you paint something you can see through? How do you capture sunlight on the surface, or the ripples left behind by a swimmer? Hockney returned to these questions, finding fresh ways to turn moving water into lines, shapes and color.

In A Bigger Splash (1967), he captured the burst of water just after someone dives in. He spent two weeks painting a moment that lasted only two seconds. That contrast was part of the pleasure: something that disappears almost instantly could stay on a canvas forever.

Pools were also part of his everyday life in California, where he swam at friends’ homes and spent time with his partner, Peter Schlesinger. They were places of friendship, pleasure and possibility.

Perhaps that’s what makes these works so inviting. You can enjoy their color and sense of escape immediately, then keep looking and discover how much is happening beneath the surface.