Sunset, Sunday, 21 June 2009

Locust Dale, Madison County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Our destination (see previous post) offered an amazing vista, with Old Rag about smack in the center. This of course is a much longer view than the one in the painting from early afternoon – these mountains are around three times higher than those on our eastern horizon.

A friend I’d worked with in L.A. and then lost touch with decided to build a house in Virginia; I rediscovered him living one mile down the road from me. When he first got here he made a common westerner’s mistake and called the Blue Ridge mere “hills” – no doubt because, on the horizon, they bear a superficial resemblance to the Santa Monica Mountains, or, as they’re known in one section, the Hollywood Hills. 

Once you get up there, in the Blue Ridge, you realize you’re in a seriously massive territory all its own.

Twelve years ago, Laura and I traveled to the wonderful city of Montréal for our honeymoon. We had no idea that June 21st was also the anniversary of the hanging of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a Portuguese-born African slave convicted – on shaky evidence – of deliberately starting a fire that burned much of the city in 1734.

If you go to the linked article, I can save you a little time by noting that the research controversies mentioned at the beginning don’t have much to do with the major facts of the case. Also, I don’t always mean to refer people to Wikipedia, but sometimes that’s a natural place to start. Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, is available only by subscription – I subscribe for the sake of my research for editorial clients – and, in any case, seems too conservative or hidebound to include many subjects like the unfortunate Angélique.

Come to think of it, I have a literally hidebound set of Britannica on my shelf, and she’s not in there, either.

Sunset, Saturday, 20 June 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.Summer, scheduled for tomorrow, showed up today, although not until after noon.

After a back-and-forth springtime miasma of either too much heat or not enough, and rain in either case, and a close tropical morning about as oppressive as it gets, the superb high blue broke through. An hour or two of heating up all the leftover moisture until it sizzled, and then summer set up its administration.

I was driving home just before sunset, and the green roadside finally had summer depth – countless greens, watermelon green, limousine in shade, tin can green, popsicle and firecracker twilight, Fragonard or Boucher woman on a swing pink and green, baseball diamond emerald under the lights.

Sunset, Thursday, 18 June 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Concerning this painting, its soundtrack was a deer snorting about 20 times as it walked a half-circle in the field from the right into the center of this view. We tried to entertain Flint the foxhound by alerting him to the sound (he was inside ... reclining), but the same dog I’d seen yesterday chase a deer for a mile, weaving in and out of a wide swath of power line toward the Rivanna River, merely almost imperceptibly raised one brow as he tried to appraise whether what we were saying had anything to do with food.

Sunset, Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.I shifted and cheated the perspective a little to the north to get the gnarly-looking clouds over Piney Mountain – a bit of the mountain at the extreme right. The clouds aren’t stormy as far as I know – a quiet, subdued, strangely cool evening.

Update on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 09:50PM by BVD

Hmmm, correction: According to the weather authorities, the clouds may indeed be rainy. But probably not stormy, a probability devoutly to be grateful for, says Flint the thunder-shy foxhound.

Sunset, Monday, 15 June 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.Just before everything got swallowed up.

There might be a further post here tomorrow – haven’t decided whether to write about the strange topic, the relatively bland topic, or no topic. Come to think of it, ‘no topic’ could be quite interesting ... 

Update on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 03:10PM by BVD

Technical. For just a moment inside a glowing gold auburn-ringed haze the sun was a perfectly defined pale disk, dimmer and brighter than the haze, and just how to do this alla prima is one of the sky things I haven’t figured out. Pale suns in haze – looks like several days of glazes to me.

(Do I think it’s necessary to be able to ‘represent reality’? No. But it’s a nice option to have.)

Metaphorical. That’s the last time we’d see the Great Lamp of the harbor of Atlantis. Volcanic smoke consumed it and the light disappeared.

Political. The bright circle reminded me of the handsome little Albemarle County Election Officer pin I’d received in the mail, and it occurred to me I’d better wear it while I still had the chance. (See June 9th.)

Physical. (Also, Tragicomic.) (Aerobic.) The woods have grown so tall, and with all these other trees that have come up near the yard, I sometimes can’t see enough of the sunset from any one place in the yard, the fields, or the house. So tonight it’s back and forth in the back yard – back inside the house to the second floor landing and then the studio – back outside – over to the fence – out to the front fields – back to the second floor. Did I miss anything?

Confessional. (Also, Culinary.) (Plus, see Tragicomic, Aerobic.) I have really avoided mentioning this in the two months I’ve been doing this blog, primarily because it doesn’t have anything to do with what I’m trying to say, but also because I know people will think I’m painfully crazy – but I’m usually cooking while I’m painting, photographing and posting. It ain’t Laura’s fault – she wants to cook more – I’m what they call an alpha cook. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, it’s insane ... To paraphrase Robert Johnson, you’d better come on in my kitchen, especially if you’re hungry. Fortunately, tonight’s easy – leftover spaghetti carbonara.

Metaphysical. (Trippy, New Age.) The casual conversation with Gillian and Paul on Saturday about our orientation to the poles eventually made me realize there might be a connection between the ‘energy’ of the sunset (I told you this was trippy) and my longtime fascination with things that run basically at a right angle to whatever I’m doing. This may sound a little weird, but – for example – I can’t drive up Route 15 between Gainesville, Virginia, and Point of Rocks, Maryland, without feeling at least a little, and sometimes profoundly, distracted by the beautiful creeks and streams that run underneath the road. Partly I just want to go down those streams; the feeling of going forward in fact and going at a right angle in mind produces a sort of friction – almost literally a spark – a ‘crossing’ energy. I know I’ll return to this idea at some point later (and I hope I won’t forget to bring in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce). And what I realized was that this orientation to the sunrise and sunset is somehow also a crossing energy – across the axis of the poles – perhaps playing something for us like a bow drawn over a string.

Sunset, Sunday, 14 June 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.