diff --git a/galleries/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/multicolored_line.py b/galleries/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/multicolored_line.py
index 8c72d28e9e67..3a71225d0112 100644
--- a/galleries/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/multicolored_line.py
+++ b/galleries/examples/lines_bars_and_markers/multicolored_line.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 from matplotlib.collections import LineCollection
 
 
-def colored_line(x, y, c, ax, **lc_kwargs):
+def colored_line(x, y, c, ax=None, **lc_kwargs):
     """
     Plot a line with a color specified along the line by a third value.
 
@@ -36,8 +36,8 @@ def colored_line(x, y, c, ax, **lc_kwargs):
         The horizontal and vertical coordinates of the data points.
     c : array-like
         The color values, which should be the same size as x and y.
-    ax : Axes
-        Axis object on which to plot the colored line.
+    ax : matplotlib.axes.Axes, optional
+        The axes to plot on. If not provided, the current axes will be used.
     **lc_kwargs
         Any additional arguments to pass to matplotlib.collections.LineCollection
         constructor. This should not include the array keyword argument because
@@ -49,36 +49,32 @@ def colored_line(x, y, c, ax, **lc_kwargs):
         The generated line collection representing the colored line.
     """
     if "array" in lc_kwargs:
-        warnings.warn('The provided "array" keyword argument will be overridden')
+        warnings.warn(
+            'The provided "array" keyword argument will be overridden',
+            UserWarning,
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
+
+    xy = np.stack((x, y), axis=-1)
+    xy_mid = np.concat(
+        (xy[0, :][None, :], (xy[:-1, :] + xy[1:, :]) / 2, xy[-1, :][None, :]), axis=0
+    )
+    segments = np.stack((xy_mid[:-1, :], xy, xy_mid[1:, :]), axis=-2)
+    # Note that
+    # segments[0, :, :] is [xy[0, :], xy[0, :], (xy[0, :] + xy[1, :]) / 2]
+    # segments[i, :, :] is [(xy[i - 1, :] + xy[i, :]) / 2, xy[i, :],
+    #     (xy[i, :] + xy[i + 1, :]) / 2] if i not in {0, len(x) - 1}
+    # segments[-1, :, :] is [(xy[-2, :] + xy[-1, :]) / 2, xy[-1, :], xy[-1, :]]
+
+    lc_kwargs["array"] = c
+    lc = LineCollection(segments, **lc_kwargs)
 
-    # Default the capstyle to butt so that the line segments smoothly line up
-    default_kwargs = {"capstyle": "butt"}
-    default_kwargs.update(lc_kwargs)
-
-    # Compute the midpoints of the line segments. Include the first and last points
-    # twice so we don't need any special syntax later to handle them.
-    x = np.asarray(x)
-    y = np.asarray(y)
-    x_midpts = np.hstack((x[0], 0.5 * (x[1:] + x[:-1]), x[-1]))
-    y_midpts = np.hstack((y[0], 0.5 * (y[1:] + y[:-1]), y[-1]))
-
-    # Determine the start, middle, and end coordinate pair of each line segment.
-    # Use the reshape to add an extra dimension so each pair of points is in its
-    # own list. Then concatenate them to create:
-    # [
-    #   [(x1_start, y1_start), (x1_mid, y1_mid), (x1_end, y1_end)],
-    #   [(x2_start, y2_start), (x2_mid, y2_mid), (x2_end, y2_end)],
-    #   ...
-    # ]
-    coord_start = np.column_stack((x_midpts[:-1], y_midpts[:-1]))[:, np.newaxis, :]
-    coord_mid = np.column_stack((x, y))[:, np.newaxis, :]
-    coord_end = np.column_stack((x_midpts[1:], y_midpts[1:]))[:, np.newaxis, :]
-    segments = np.concatenate((coord_start, coord_mid, coord_end), axis=1)
-
-    lc = LineCollection(segments, **default_kwargs)
-    lc.set_array(c)  # set the colors of each segment
+    # Plot the line collection to the axes
+    ax = ax or plt.gca()
+    ax.add_collection(lc)
+    ax.autoscale_view()
 
-    return ax.add_collection(lc)
+    return lc
 
 
 # -------------- Create and show plot --------------
@@ -93,11 +89,6 @@ def colored_line(x, y, c, ax, **lc_kwargs):
 lines = colored_line(x, y, color, ax1, linewidth=10, cmap="plasma")
 fig1.colorbar(lines)  # add a color legend
 
-# Set the axis limits and tick positions
-ax1.set_xlim(-1, 1)
-ax1.set_ylim(-1, 1)
-ax1.set_xticks((-1, 0, 1))
-ax1.set_yticks((-1, 0, 1))
 ax1.set_title("Color at each point")
 
 plt.show()