Michael Fitts at Haley Fine Art

There’s no way I’m going to miss the opening reception for the Mike Fitts show at Haley Fine Art in the beautiful little town of Sperryville, Virginia, on September 29th. (Show goes up September 27th.) Sperryville alone would be worth the trip, the Haley gallery alone is worth the trip, and the work of Michael Fitts would be more than worth the trip. Did I mention that it’s worth the trip? 

The River Obscure

The gorge of the River Obscure is formed by a gap between bending trees, rays of sun slanting from the far side, and a pile of rock perhaps seventy feet high suggesting a bluff hidden in the treetops. Tourists would never come to see this place, because once more than three people got here, something bigger would be needed to impress the group. They’d be looking at each other, and in vain for something more. One person, however, stepping out onto a sandbar for the first time, on a late afternoon in summer, can feel it. The true magnitude of what we encounter can sometimes only be measured by the silence it inspires.

Power, Power, Everywhere, Nor Any Drop ... – Sunset, Saturday, 30 June 2012

William Van Doren, POWER, POWER, EVERYWHERE, NOR ANY DROP ... . Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Sunset on the first full day of a four-day power outage following the previous night’s storms. (Storms, or to use the somewhat new description, derechoes, hit shortly after I posted the ominous sky of “Mercury Blues.”) Bid on this painting here!

Anniversary

By the way, I painted the first of my sunsets 17 years ago today, June 13, 1995. Painted another one a couple days later, and then the next day ... Anyone got space for a few thousand paintings?

Transit of Venus – Sunset, Tuesday, 5 June 2012

William Van Doren, TRANSIT OF VENUS. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Cloudy here, and no doubt cloudy there.

At the End of May

The woods are deepening into their manifold greens — mature summer green and bright new partytime green, raw cut-over green and distant atmospheric Watteau green, blue cedar berry green, black soil green and indigo bunting twilight silhouette. Each tree’s canopy entails a volume of colorless pure colorspace, trees growing red green, orange green, and breathing out of green blue sky.