Sunset, Thursday, 4 February 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

Thanks to Ethel Cole for the word of the day (at least).

“So,” Ethel says to me, “are you ready for the snowpocalypse?” 

If you saw how revved-up folks in this area get over a predicted big storm – if you spent five minutes in a grocery store on a day like today – you’d know how truly perfect Ethel’s word is. 

Of course, this one may really be snowpocalyptic. And yes, Ethel, I believe this time we are ready. I hope this time I won’t be telling sad tales of having to walk four miles up a major highway for supplies.

The sun was a whitish moon-like blur in a gradually lowering sky, approaching sunset. 

Meanwhile, and speaking of wintry sunsets, NPR reported the following today on Morning Edition. I don’t quite understand where the webcam was located, from this story, but here’s the whole thing:

A man lost on the ice of Germany’s North Sea was saved by two cameras and a keen-eyed woman hundreds of miles away. The man had trekked onto pack ice to take photos of [the] sunset. He became disoriented and couldn’t find the shore, so he signaled for help by flashing his camera. The woman who spotted him was taking in that same sunset on a webcam from the comfort of her home. She alerted police near where he was and they guided him to safety.

Evidently, we sunset watchers also watch out for each other.

Sunset, Friday, 18 December 2009

William Theodore Van Doren. Painted at Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

This is the beginning of what it appears will be the first major snowstorm in years for central Virginia east of the Blue Ridge. Big snows for Washington northward (and westward in the Shenandoah Valley) have just meant a mess of sleet and freezing rain here, making Charlottesville’s alleged average annual snowfall of around 18 inches seem like a cruel joke to us kids who want to get out of school. Seriously, over the last 10 years I’ve begun to think our winter climate was pretty much that of ... I don’t know ... northern Georgia.

After sunset I was in the middle of the woods, using the last moments of light to cut firewood where part of an oak had crashed down a few years ago. I was looking at the snow coming down through the trees and thinking about the color tones you can see behind snow. Sometimes it’s violet or lilac, sometimes a sort of cobalt blue, or even an orange or a red, and a background of trees can add a strangely warm umber.

A master at painting atmosphere of all kinds was Childe Hassam. I’ve mentioned before the impression that his “Late Afternoon, New York, Winter” made on me when I saw it at The Brooklyn Museum. It’s apparently on exhibit there now, on the fifth floor. Surprisingly, a shot of the painting at another site seems more accurate to the color I remember than the museum’s own photo. But snow is tricky, whether out in the weather or on a canvas; basically, you can see it as almost any color you like.