Sunset, Tuesday, 20 October 2009

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

This time of year, because of the location of the woods, the position of the sun and the slope of the fields, it takes about 20 minutes of wandering as far as a mile, up and down the dirt road and through the fields, just to see the sunset. But in that short space, because of what I can see, it’s as if I’ve flown a vast distance in every direction, beyond the mountains, back toward the coast through the beautiful complementary eastern skies I don’t have time to paint, into the bright gold south, and the pale rose north, past contrails, above cirrus, looking for the place where color changes.