Meets the Eye (Sunset, Thursday, 9 September 2010)

William Van Doren, Meets the Eye (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

This particular sky lasted almost no time, and by twilight proved to have been based largely on smoke and mirrors, perhaps even literally for all I know. As I was taping the painting to the wall to shoot it, the sky’s evanescentness (I would say evanescence but it doesn’t feel right) went well with the arguably terribly underrated “Goodbye Baby” by Jack Scott and the arguably terribly overwrought (it depends on who you are when you encounter it) “The Last Time I Saw Her Face” by Gordon Lightfoot. Anyhow, the sky was gone quickly but it left its mark.

Reach/Retreat (Sunset, Wednesday, 8 September 2010)

William Van Doren, Reach/Retreat (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Up a Down (Sunset, Tuesday, 7 September 2010)

William Van Doren, Up a Down (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

From The Unwritten History of Labor Day (Sunset, Monday, 6 September 2010)

William Van Doren, The Unwritten History of Labor Day. Chapter 19. Sunset (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Ready for Its Close-Up (Sunset, Sunday, 5 September 2010)

William Van Doren, Ready for Its Close-Up (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

A Dozen Cirrus Medallions

A dozen cirrus medallions stretched out across the entire length of a blue sky, like something I don’t think I’ve ever seen – not a line of cirrus or a field, but twelve separate and distinct circular or oval shield-like islands in a row. One was like an x-ray of spine and rib cage, another like a fan you might cool yourself with in a church, and another a big heart-shaped paulownia leaf. One was a ray swimming fast, trailing streaks of bubbles in the water; another was a coat of arms in which you could divine your own emblems; and another was a broad chiseled arrowhead. They all came under the technical cloud designation cirrographicus.