Sunset, Friday, 21 May 2010

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

First the day was bright and warm, then in the afternoon came the clouds. Toward sunset the massive red oaks and white oaks created a green shadow interior as they buttressed the gray shadow interior of the sky.

The Woods Across the Field

The woods across the field got up this morning and decided they weren’t going to take it anymore – this greenhouse mess. Already growing faster than anyone expected they could, they doubled in height in the space of ten minutes. They doubled again. And again. I was here, on this side of the field, when the immense shade began. Soon the woods were interfering with volcanic ash. And it wasn’t long before they’d done what they set out to do. They’d reached the sun.

Sunset, Friday, 30 April 2010

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

New here today, an index to these posts by category, and an index by tags.

All of April’s sunsets have landed in a calendar array, here.

Half an hour before sunset, the flood of gold light hitting the wall of young poplars at the far side of the power lines, then washing over all the bright green dots of new growth in the landlord’s 20 acres of clear-cut devastation beyond, would almost make you believe that people cut a swath for the power lines and knock down the woods just to make things even more incredibly beautiful.

Sunset, Monday, 15 March 2010

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

Out today in the world it was clay and gray, brown leaf and dark needle, the curled beech papers along with a scattering of little blackjack oaks the last old foliage about ready to drop, and the woods as open as they’ll ever be. Every year there must be a moment when beechy parchments fall and new greens shoot, but that’s a secret ceremony I’ve never managed to witness.

Sunset, Tuesday, 9 March 2010

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

Fever and chills and I didn’t want to paint or do anything else, but felt absolutely fine while painting this, just for the duration. I witnessed the sunset in the company of two guys from rural Madison County who had delivered firewood and may have wondered why I kept looking over at the horizon. At that point we were out at the edge of a field evaluating a big red oak I’d been trying to cut down for at least five years, and they were good-naturedly giving me a hard time about my failure to do so. Apparently I did the right things but in the wrong order, and now any attempt to continue could kill one of us. They allowed as to how, although it would be quite an involved operation, it would be possible to climb to the top, lasso the tree with a rope, and pull it down with their truck. I noticed them thoughtfully scratching their chins as they contemplated the degree of difficulty of the procedure. I did not ask for a quote, at least not today.

Sunset, Sunday, 7 February 2010

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

(This morning:)

Pine boughs weighted fresh in snow, a wall of boughs a thousandfold sunrise.