Arbor At the Cottages

While visiting family, we walked in a garden with a big arbor at one end. It was early afternoon on a sunny day. The straight, sturdy framework of the arbor contrasted with the tangle of vines. Leaves glowed like stained glass. Something about this seemed so familiar...then it came to me. I was thinking of the Grapevine Panel by Louis Comfort Tiffany which is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum. That masterpiece is so effective because of the many textures and shades of green, and the way that the vines are formed from leading that varies in thickness, to look more realistic. Perhaps Tiffany had a moment just like my moment, looking up at an arbor and imagining those fluttering leaves in stained glass.