Rainstorm in a Cat’s-Eye (Sunset, Saturday, 1 October 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, RAINSTORM IN A CAT’S-EYE (Sunset from Route 15, Oatlands, Loudoun County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

One of those moments when it’s raining but it looks like skies will soon clear. (They didn’t!) I was on my way back from the Michael Douglas Jones exhibit UNION: The Courier Journals, 1861-1865, at the Delaplaine Center, Frederick, Md. The room is deceptively small; in terms of its imagination, depth, artistry, and implications for our nation’s history, the show is immense. A signal achievement.