Sunset, Sunday, 31 January 2010

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

Snow-covered, clear and calm (I’m sure about that part), and headed for 10°F (maybe).

There was a sort of Good King Wenceslas moment that came to me years ago, in another place. I was gathering cedarwood by moonlight, walking in a luminous field of frost, the moon a great frost mirror, so bright it blew all stars away except a few frozen points. A plane overhead, two prop engines, flashed one running light cherry frost, the other vanilla. I realized I felt warmed by the frost, that cold could be deceptive, and frost a flame.

Sunset, Saturday, 28 November 2009

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

Clear, with color and light draining, air turning chilly. If we manage to get a frost tonight, I’m pretty sure it will be only the second of the year in this locale, which seems remarkable. Maybe after all this time, with a little more frost, and if the deer, the bears and the wind have left me any, I can be persuaded to try, again, one of our persimmons – the native Virginia kind.

Sunset, Monday, 19 October 2009

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

Today we had a general light frost – our first. When the sun came up, it fused with sparkling fields in one cold light. As the sun climbed, its rays revolved and wheeled the frost up into the sky, leaving us with a mild day. 

With the frost, we’re now eligible for Indian Summer. 

Maybe a Virginian of Pamunkey, Mattaponi or Monacan lineage could tell me whether ‘Indian Summer’ means anything to a Native American.

It’s a strange feeling sometimes to realize that the vantage point of all these sunsets once belonged to the Monacan people.