Sunset, Tuesday, 19 May 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on linen, 16 x 20.It took waiting half an hour past “sunset” to find out what it was going to do, but the deepening sky gave me the chance to use a mixture of three blues I call – you won’t believe how clever this is – “beautiful blue.” That’s the middle tone between the greenish horizon and the descending gray violet.

This has almost nothing to do with tonight’s painting, but there’s a well-known adage among painters, “When in doubt, add white.”

I offer, “When in doubt, mess it up.”