Lanterns in Turquoise

About this piece

Two lantern arrangements form a diagonal across a broad expanse of turquoise water, their dark silhouettes encircled by jewel-colored glass spheres. Fine ripples pattern the pale bottom, while ochre rocks at the right edge introduce a warm counterpoint to the dominant blue.

The story

I framed the lanterns with enough water between them for the ripples to become part of the subject. Their dark roofs held my eye first; then came the small discoveries of color gathered around each base, red and green and amber against turquoise. I wanted to keep that spaciousness intact. The rocks along the edge gave the scene a boundary, but the light seemed to carry on beyond it, breaking into finer lines across the shallows.