White Christmas in Progress (Sunset, Saturday, 25 December 2010)

William Van Doren, WHITE CHRISTMAS IN PROGRESS (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Ebb (Sunset, Wednesday, 20 October 2010)

William Van Doren, EBB (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Looking past Piney Mountain and the woods to a Blue Ridge I couldn’t quite see.

Rain Over Piney Mountain (Sunset, Wednesday, 29 September 2010)

William Van Doren, RAIN OVER PINEY MOUNTAIN (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Since there are many mountains by this name I should say that this is the one near Advance Mills, a few miles from the east wall of the Blue Ridge. Although it’s a small mountain, its solitary position makes it seem quite prominent. At sunset it was perhaps 75 percent covered by rain clouds.

Clouds Over Piney Mountain. Sunset, Wednesday, 18 August 2010

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

My vantage point here is a few hundred yards to the right, or north, of my usual spot, so that I could look toward the sunset and also get nearby Piney Mountain. Clouds are low – Piney Mountain’s only around 1100 feet, or less than 700 feet higher than where I’m standing – and the patch of blue is about the only break there’s been in the clouds all day. Light rain and mist.

Sunset, Sunday, 2 May 2010

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

This view is shifted around to the north where the light was breaking through, a little bit away from the sunset proper, over nearby Piney Mountain.

Sunset, Tuesday, 2 March 2010

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

March has very nearly played lamb and lion on consecutive days. Today it was a wet snow through most of the afternoon. Not that cold but after about four miles with Flint the foxhound, my toes were numb for an hour. Even Piney Mountain, less than two miles away, elevation 1116 feet (and usually out of the picture frame to the right, or north, in the sunsets), was shrouded in cold snow fog.

When I look at some paintings I see colors oscillating, side to side, as if coming forward – as if light does not fade but there is a dimension in which it keeps gathering strength, and colors, even grays, reach unknown intensities.