Harlequin Pond

I take every opportunity to draw on my garden and surrounding woods for inspiration.  For example, Harlequin Pond is an abstracted image of my garden pond. I painted the image in two different color pallets to complete an assignment illustrating how surrounding colors affected one’s perception. The identical purple watercolor is shown with different contrasting colors in the red and blue versions of Harlequin Pond. Both versions are depicted in the “Muses” collection of the Abstract Gallery on this website.

DESCRIPTION OF MY GARDEN POND

the need

In a lawn area close to the house, there was a low spot where water collected from the spout of an underground foundation drain. The area remained soggy late into the summer and couldn’t be easily mowed and thus became overgrown with aggressive, unsightly weeds.

the design for a solution

Dig a small pond.  Include a spill way for spring snow melt.  The design – a yin yang. A bog was created to separate the two main elements of the symbol, wet and dry. The plastic lined bog was filled with varying sized rocks and planted with native, water-loving plants. Pond water was delivered to the narrow, shallow end of the bog via a solar pump (which also ran a small decorative fountain). The pond water entered the bog via a hidden tube and then flowed downhill, following the contour created for that purpose. Gravity therefore automatically directed the water to flow through the various rock strata and the roots of the native bog plants. The purified water was then re-introduced into the pond at the opposite end of the bog. This filtration mechanism relied completely on gravity and available sunlight which ran the solar-powered pump. Since sunlight is also responsible for the algae growth and subsequent debris accumulation that causes stagnation, the system maintained a delicate balance. The yin/yang symbol was decoratively completed by including two small circles: a “wet” feature in the dry garden, and a “dry” one within the pond.

in retrospect

Salamanders and frogs gradually found their way to this oasis on an otherwise dry, upland meadow. Although the bog slowly filled with sediment, it continued to function without maintenance for many years though in particularly droughty summers, water had to be added. As intended, the pond, bog and garden provided a haven for native plants and animals as well as a visual treat and a meditative spot for observers.