Sunset, Sunday, 14 February 2010
William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.
In order to make a Valentine’s Day sunset I had decided, and was fully prepared, to make up a sky if necessary. I was thinking of a cadmium red and alizarin crimson sun on a field of rose. I was ready to jump the shark. But then the sky started taking the matter out of my hands. Forty minutes before sunset I was surprised to see a heart-shaped opening in the clouds. Seriously. It wasn’t there at sunset – instead, at sunset there was a very large heart-shaped cloud formation to the west and south, right over a glowing rosy red orange horizon. I’m not lying – a heart in the sky. So, even if you didn’t get one, you got one. As you should.
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