Sunset, Saturday, 9 January 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Westminster, Carroll County, Md. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

My view was from the top of a hill near the famed, fun and funky Baugher’s Family Restaurant, just down to the left or south, and, on another hill, facing this one from the left, McDaniel College.

To sit and write under a hotel room blanket is one way to have visions. This particular one was an ocean I’ve never seen.

It’s warm and blue, possibly the Indian. It’s vertical rather than the more familiar horizontal – portrait, not landscape (or seascape). So everything moves from below your feet above your head, even air, inside the water, to breathe. You’re walking, looking into the ocean, and you’re in it. What makes this ocean so special is it’s a completely landlocked concept.