Sunset, Saturday, 5 June 2010 (Second Version)

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 10 x 14.

An experiment – looking for something I can sense is there, but haven’t found. It’s precisely because the sunset itself was so ‘unremarkable’ that it seems promising to me. But not quite yet.

Sunset, Monday, 24 May 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

Some nights the sky goes through so many changes the only thing to do is try to forget them all, close your eyes, and just tell the whole story at once.

Smoked Duck on the Red Ball Express

William Theodore Van Doren. Smoked Duck on the Red Ball Express. 2000. Oil on wood panel, 11 x 14.

I just got this painting back from a long-term loan and was very happy to have a chance to photograph it. I’ve alternated between simply calling it “Untitled” and naming it as shown here, but the title phrase came to me as soon as I finished the painting and never seems to want to go away. Part of a series keyed to red, crimson, orange and pink that I suspect isn’t over yet.

Sunset, Saturday, 8 May 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

I had to remind myself not to get trapped into trying to “paint what I see” (whatever that could possibly mean), but also to account for the west wind just coming around to the north, and the day cooling down with a high lifting sky oddly like a summer evening at the beach, and the million and one things you can’t know with your eyes.

Sunset, Tuesday, 13 April 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

Overcast at sunset, with light rain here and there. I questioned the clouds as to whether they were really as all-fired gray as they said they were, and what they might be hiding.

Sunset, Saturday, 3 April 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

Some of my reactions to the sunset aren’t necessarily what you might expect from a loyal and dedicated daily follower of the sky.

Like, “What! You mean it’s changing again!?”

This fit of consternation can be attributed largely to the amount of concentration it takes to ‘assemble’ a sky while observing it, in order to paint it. I had absorbed this one pretty completely a couple of times before it changed yet again. On top of everything else, it simply became more Easteresque, with the changes – I guess purple and gold relate to some sort of ecclesiastical association.

Before this, say what you may about crucifixions, Passovers, resurrections, Calvarys, hosannas, and so on, the day’s warmth, its streaked blue sky, pale green trees, yellow flowers and pink cherry blossoms were about as sweetly pastel as it gets here. Chalk it up to the Easter Bunny.