Opposite Sunset – Sunset, Wednesday, 13 June 2012

William Van Doren, OPPOSITE SUNSET. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Looking east tonight during a very clear sunset in the west.

East at Sunset – Sunset, Monday, 21 May 2012

William Van Doren, EAST AT SUNSET. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Looking opposite the sunset, east across the nearby Southwest Mountains (as confusing as that always sounds).

Southwest Mountains from Burnt Mill Road (Afternoon, 1 July 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, SOUTHWEST MOUNTAINS FROM BURNT MILL ROAD. Oil on wood panel, 11 x 14.

I’ve just launched a new gallery called “New and Recent” – starting with this painting from yesterday. It’s going for $75 and at 11x14 fits a standard frame.

Perigee (Moonrise, Saturday, 19 March 2011)

William Van Doren, PERIGEE (Moonrise from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

West of Eden (Sunset, Tuesday, 30 November 2010)

William Van Doren, WEST OF EDEN (Sunset from Rosena, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Sunset arrived in the rain, in the middle of a three-hour saga involving Laura’s car, a flat tire and a stuck wheel. Thanks to my brother Steve, a shade-tree mechanical genius, for telling me how to free the wheel. (Place my butt down in the pool of water adjacent to the car, put both heels together, kick the sides and the top of the wheel, and it’ll pop right off. After four kicks, I’ll be damned, it popped.)

This all happened at Rosena, a tiny place at the foot of the western side of the Southwest Mountains. During a lull in the action I wandered over to a Virginia historic marker on the roadside and read that Thomas Jefferson considered the Southwest Mountains “the Eden of the United States.” I wouldn’t argue, even while wet and stranded on the slope. 

South at Twilight (Sunset, Thursday, 28 October 2010)

William Van Doren, SOUTH AT TWILIGHT (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

This view is pretty close to due south (south-southwest), with the Blue Ridge, and my usual sunset horizon, on the right.