Good & Plenty – Sunset, Sunday, 8 June 2014

William Van Doren, GOOD & PLENTY. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.

Painting started out with the left half pink (rose madder in white) and the right side black (chromatic black composed of red and blue).

Quicktime – Sunset, Saturday, 7 June 2014

William Van Doren, QUICKTIME. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.

Blue Sky Thinking – Sunset, Friday, 6 June 2014

William Van Doren, BLUE SKY THINKING. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.

Storyboard Sun – Sunset, Thursday, 5 June 2014

William Van Doren, STORYBOARD SUN. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.

Trailing the Storm – Sunset, Wednesday, 4 June 2014

William Van Doren, TRAILING THE STORM. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.

A Bold Deceiver – Sunset, Tuesday, 3 June 2014

William Van Doren, A BOLD DECEIVER. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.

I took a photograph of this sunset while I was sketching it, and the colors in the photo were spectacular, with brilliant gold, yellow and red spreading everywhere. However, perhaps because it was a crude shot, the high contrast blotted out details in what I was seeing — for example, what I noted as a “wonderful sick greenish gray” in the clouds. I saw something less spectacular but interesting in its own right. Of course, in the end it may be hard to pinpoint the real deceiver — the photographer, the painter, or the world itself.