William Van Doren, WORDS AND PICTURES. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.
Part of my process, whether I paint five minutes or five days after the sun goes down, is (a) remembering what colors certain notations on my sketches stand for and (b) finding out what pigments may be involved. In this case, we had something called “vague blue.” Also, “swervy curvy cirrus with blue” (represented here and there as “sccwb”) and “roseyish thicker cirrus shield.” Exactly.