Sunset, Monday, 20 July 2009

William Theodore Van Doren. Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Gray as the moon’s surface on a black-and-white TV.

Gray as silver reflections from a spacesuit.

Gray as a monumental statement missing just one little one-letter word.

Gray as the dark shadow of the white or golden or orange beam of a waxing or waning moon on any night of any year of any era.

Gray made of blues, violets, ochres, reds, yellows, browns, like the secretive and powerful gray government of a great democracy.

Gray as green trees shrouded in rain.

Gray as the black body of a camera.

Gray as the gray plastic or shiny aluminum computer casing.

Gray as letters on the screen.

Gray and bright and white as light.

Sunset, Saturday, 18 July 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

The sun going down on a mostly clear summer day, a dark green atmosphere starting to form underneath the great oaks – darker for the brightness of the sunset – puts me in mind of the evening trees and green lawns of West Egg, in the spaces between Nick Carraway’s cottage and Gatsby’s mansion. Pretty funny, considering I’m standing in a yard that hasn’t been mowed in a few weeks, looking past a garden waist-high with weeds, and the nearest party is likely to consist of a few drunken yahoos screaming and tossing bottles out by the county road. But thanks, Scott Fitzgerald, for creating this part of the world for me, this atmosphere under the trees.

Sunset, Thursday, 16 July 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Actual random soundtrack for the process of this painting included “She’s Coming Home” (Zombies) (she was, even though she worked late), “Annie Get Your Gun” (Squeeze), “Sh-Boom” (The Chords), “Phonograph Blues” (RJ), “I’m Gonna Love You Too” (Buddy Holly), “The Luck Of The Irish” (John Lennon), “Watch The Tapes” (LCD Soundsystem), but no “Twilight Time” even though there were two completely different spectacular twilight skies right after this one – and, most appropriately, “Virginia” (Clipse), which includes a reference to “heat like Caribbean summers.”

Indeed.

Sunset, Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

The sunset sky changed its story three times in 30 minutes, altered its address, login and password, effaced its Facebook account, sold all of its stuff in a yard sale down here on Watts Passage, and left without telling me what I wanted to know. I finally found it staying under an assumed name at a boarding house in Bristol, Tennessee, in a room with a spectacular view of itself.

Twilight, Tuesday, 14 July 2009

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset (Twilight) from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on linen, 16 x 20.

As mentioned in the previous post, the long progression from sunset through twilight was truly strange. A glowing band of cream-orange yellow eventually became very nearly orange, with an abrupt demarcation between the bright band and an unusual, ever darker, but still radiant blue. Against this, clouds were a raven-like purple-black. Could have been a Raveonettes sky. It could be interpreted as strange and ominous, but I decided it was strange and luminous.

Sunset, Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Dedicated to the vainqueurs of the Bastille. I think we in the States tend to minimize Bastille Day (my birthday!) because we always hear that the prison wasn’t necessarily that important, the storming of the place wasn’t such a big deal, etc. – so I was surprised to learn that 98 of the liberators were killed that day.

Tonight’s sunset was followed by one of the strangest twilights I think I’ve ever seen. If I feel I can remember the composition and the colors well enough, I may add it tomorrow.