What Was Seen Was Felt (Sunset, Sunday, 10 July 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, WHAT WAS SEEN WAS FELT (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

It dawned on me, too late, that van Gogh demonstrated how to handle this sort of thing, more than 120 years ago. So . . . next time!

Not Entirely Forgotten (Sunset, Tuesday, 28 June 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, NOT ENTIRELY FORGOTTEN (Sunset/Twilight from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

After five hours of storms, the clouds had an after-party, and went through a dizzying array of changes. At times the sky looked like a Turner, then like a Tiepolo, then there was a curious green layer of cloud, and what had been gold turned orange-pink. At some point I had to give up trying to absorb it all – try to forget and just paint.

Bright Spots (Sunset, Monday, 27 June 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, BRIGHT SPOTS (Sunset/Twilight from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

It’s possible that an ancient tube of slightly separated zinc white – the only white I had left – was responsible for the thin, almost rubbed texture of this painting, but whatever it was, it seemed to work for this particular sky.

A Cloudy Blue Sky (Sunset, Sunday, 26 June 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, A CLOUDY BLUE SKY (Sunset/Twilight from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

The sky was all shades of gray, with scattered rain. I decided to render most of the gray clouds as shades of blue, and turned the mountains from pale blue to gray.

Last Sunset Standing (Sunset, Thursday, 23 June 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, LAST SUNSET STANDING (second version)(Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

William Theodore Van Doren, LAST SUNSET STANDING (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

As sunset approached I was at a small gathering where I was delivering a commissioned painting; we watched the sky and discussed the colors, speculating on the painting to come. An hour later, almost everything we’d observed had become obsolete. This was “last” in a series of quite different skies.

Update on Friday, June 24, 2011 at 11:04AM by BVD

I wasn’t very happy with the first version that I painted last night, so I’ve done a new one this morning (the one on top). The sky was so strange that I may not have quite gotten it in either case, but ... I feel better now!

Note in Transit

I’m moving around up in the Baltimore area since yesterday and unable to shoot and post paintings; I should be catching up on the sunset series starting Monday. Yesterday’s sunset was the view out the window of a hospital room (not mine), near my alma mater, Johns Hopkins; tonight’s should be a view I’ve painted several times before, near York Road and Northern Parkway. It’s always interesting, the deciding what to do with all the buildings ...