The Twelfth of Never – Sunset, Wednesday, 12 December 2012

William Van Doren, THE TWELFTH OF NEVER. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Immediately after watching the sunset, and before painting, I posted this on The Very Rich Hours Facebook page:

Just a note in passing, in case I'm never heard from again after tonight: As people who live around here may attest, I just witnessed the most strangely beautiful, or beautifully strange, sunset I can remember. And, of course, I have seen a few. Wish me luck, because it was the kind of sky that could make a painter consider turning in their badge. I'm not sure a painting can come near it, but we'll see, soon enough.

The number of people who commented on this, and the fact that many of them had seen the same sunset and were waiting for the painting, points up something I’ve never mentioned, which is the nature of this series as a performance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it falls somewhere between. And I probably can’t make those judgments.