Indiana Goodbye – Sunset, Thursday, 10 May 2012

William Van Doren, INDIANA GOODBYE. Sunset from Corydon, Harrison County, Ind. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

This will probably be my last sunset painting from my late sister’s place south of Corydon.

From Emily’s Bridge (Sunset, Saturday, 15 October 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, FROM EMILY’S BRIDGE (Sunset from Corydon, Harrison County, Ind.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.At my sister’s place there’s a wooden footbridge from the driveway to the house, over a small brushy ravine, and at the driveway end, a great view to the west. I perched atop her monstrous white 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummins 24-valve turbo diesel truck (which she called Billy Blanco) for this view. We had just had a great day remembering Emily.

Uninspired in Indiana (Sunset, Friday, 14 October 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, UNINSPIRED IN INDIANA (Sunset from Corydon, Harrison County, Ind.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

To me this painting amounts to a quick glance out the hotel window and reflects my preoccupation with my sister’s memorial service, which we were having the next day. 

A Whole Wide Bunch (Sunset, Wednesday, 28 September 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, A WHOLE WIDE BUNCH (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

When my sister, as a little kid, thought she had a lot of something, she called it “a whole wide bunch.” Here I was interested in getting a whole wide bunch of sky.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Live in a Fortress

Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a fortress, high, all alone, in the high rocks, with all, everything I needed, a white thick-walled tibetan sort of place curved and presenting no corners, and I would remain here, quietly enduring, from time to time receiving news of a friend or loved one passing away, but remaining here, affected to be sure, at times even weeping, but undisturbed, and with each passing perhaps a thin layer of the outer wall powders away, all my friends, all my family, who make it possible for me to have a fortress in the first place, I’ll outlive them all, naturally, so fortified.

Sorrow and Solace at Scout Mountain (Sunset, Saturday, 24 September 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, SORROW AND SOLACE AT SCOUT MOUNTAIN (Sunset from Scout Mountain, Corydon, Harrison County, Ind.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

I had come to Indiana, with my brother Steve and our spouses, because my sister, Emily, six years younger, had very unexpectedly died on the 20th. The great, and greatly bereaved, people at Scout Mountain Winery, where she worked part-time, hosted a small party for us, her daughter and some of Emily’s wonderful friends – wonderful to her and to us.