Hive Beach follows a long sweep of pale sand beneath grassy cliffs, where turquoise shallows, scattered dark rocks and pink shore flowers meet a bright clouded sky.

Steep cliffs run diagonally from the foreground into the distance, their pale faces divided by dark seams and broad green turf. Below them, an unbroken band of sand curves around the bay, broken only by small, isolated boulders near the tideline. Thin white waves trace the edge of clear blue-green water. Rounded clusters of pink flowers occupy the near slope, while large cream clouds are spread across the upper sky.

Hive Beach is composed from a high point on the coast, keeping the full curve of the bay in view. The shoreline gives the picture its long, easy direction, from flowered grass in the foreground to the far headland where the land meets the open sea.