White Sands white

Here is a picture taken at  White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. What this made me think about are the many shades of this  color. The dictionary defines white  as " having the color produced by  reflection of all the  rays of the solar spectrum".  That is an awesome thought to me.  
I make a series of handmade porcelain bowls that are white in appearance. In actuality, I use a clear  glaze over the clay.Because  the clay is white, this is the color the viewer sees when looking at my bowl. It is a warm color of white. This picture of the dunes appears to me  to be a cooler shade of white, but perhaps it is the blue sky above it that makes it appear so.
 Color can also take on a slightly different hue depending on what it is next to. Beige and tan  will have a different effect on this color than a bight, intense color. Kind of like life. It is not only what we think we see, or perceive.   It can be  influenced by  circumstance,a person,or an  event to which it is adjacent. What colors your life?