Morning Light on Garden Pots

"And as the morning steals upon the night, melting the darkness...", the sun’s rays never fail to create magic. Even though in his play, The Tempest, the Bard uses this as a metaphor for ignorance giving way to clearer reason, I’m tempted to apply it to the light that I found dancing on the pots at Descanso Gardens. En route to the nursery one morning, I saw the morning rays strike the colorful, primarily red pots, piled behind the barbed wire, awaiting their turn to be showcased in sections of the main garden. Bright blinding light reflected on their surfaces rendered them almost colorless. Of course, the sight made me footloose!

Wandering observations revealed rays creating a different kind of magic. Colors on the pots in other areas were heightened and more saturated, highlighted by a backlit background. It was an “aha” moment. I captured the pots as I saw them in different places in the varied light. I sketched rapidly from one section to the next, taking camera shots before the light shifted, and repeated the process. Back in my studio, with the help of the colored sketches and the photographs, I completed the series. Unwittingly, the ceramic containers became the subject of my watercolors that morning.