Memorial Oak

What killed the oak tree?

It was not clear why the great oak in front of the group of nine around the yard should have died when it did. The other oaks knew but wouldn’t tell me. It could have been its proximity to the electric line and the years of harassment by the power company. However, what I finally noticed was that its shape, the way it bent forward and its major branches extended in arches — these were as if it had been born elegiac. It was from the beginning an oak of remembering. As it lived, it reviewed and remembered. It was forever an oak of the past. It was never sorry, it was always ready, it was never just living.

Tree With Its Own Little Square of Dirt

William Van Doren, ballpoint on Apica notebook, 5 x 5, 2012.

According to the Tree

William Van Doren, ACCORDING TO THE TREE. Oil on gessoed 140# watercolor paper, 8 x 11, 2012.

Something new painted today, offered at Daily Paintworks.

Tree at Port-a-Ferry Farm

William Van Doren, TREE AT PORT-A-FERRY FARM. Chalk pastel on paper, 11 x 15, 1984.

Taking this out of an old frame for reframing has given me the chance to shoot and show it for the first time.

Clouds in the Woods (Sunset, Tuesday, 22 November 2011)

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

Tweets Illustrated: The Black Oak Leaf

William Theodore Van Doren. Ballpoint and watercolor pencils on folded envelope, 4 x 3.