Rainstorm in a Cat’s-Eye (Sunset, Saturday, 1 October 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, RAINSTORM IN A CAT’S-EYE (Sunset from Route 15, Oatlands, Loudoun County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

One of those moments when it’s raining but it looks like skies will soon clear. (They didn’t!) I was on my way back from the Michael Douglas Jones exhibit UNION: The Courier Journals, 1861-1865, at the Delaplaine Center, Frederick, Md. The room is deceptively small; in terms of its imagination, depth, artistry, and implications for our nation’s history, the show is immense. A signal achievement.

Seasonally Adjusted (Sunset, Friday, 30 September 2011)

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

Fire and Ash (Sunset, Thursday, 29 September 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, FIRE AND ASH (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

A Whole Wide Bunch (Sunset, Wednesday, 28 September 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, A WHOLE WIDE BUNCH (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

When my sister, as a little kid, thought she had a lot of something, she called it “a whole wide bunch.” Here I was interested in getting a whole wide bunch of sky.

The Substantial and the Insubstantial (Sunset, Tuesday, 27 September 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, THE SUBSTANTIAL AND THE INSUBSTANTIAL (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Something or Someone in the Clouds (Sunset, Monday, 26 September 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, SOMETHING OR SOMEONE IN THE CLOUDS (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.