Sun Descending Behind Old Rag – Sunset, Saturday, 31 May 2014

William Van Doren, SUN DESCENDING BEHIND OLD RAG. Sunset from Route 231, Rappahannock County, Va. Oil on Arches, 17 x 23.

On the way back from the opening for the terrific Mike Fitts show at Haley Fine Art in Sperryville.

Sunset, Saturday, 16 January 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Old Rag from Obannons Mill Road, Rappahannock County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

This is my second sunset that included a view of Old Rag; the other, back on June 21st, was from farther east and south, at Locust Dale. This perspective is near a house we’ve been hoping to be able to buy ... still working on it. Painting Old Rag every day – that’d be a drag, right?

Sunset, Sunday, 21 June 2009

Locust Dale, Madison County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Our destination (see previous post) offered an amazing vista, with Old Rag about smack in the center. This of course is a much longer view than the one in the painting from early afternoon – these mountains are around three times higher than those on our eastern horizon.

A friend I’d worked with in L.A. and then lost touch with decided to build a house in Virginia; I rediscovered him living one mile down the road from me. When he first got here he made a common westerner’s mistake and called the Blue Ridge mere “hills” – no doubt because, on the horizon, they bear a superficial resemblance to the Santa Monica Mountains, or, as they’re known in one section, the Hollywood Hills. 

Once you get up there, in the Blue Ridge, you realize you’re in a seriously massive territory all its own.

Twelve years ago, Laura and I traveled to the wonderful city of Montréal for our honeymoon. We had no idea that June 21st was also the anniversary of the hanging of Marie-Joseph Angélique, a Portuguese-born African slave convicted – on shaky evidence – of deliberately starting a fire that burned much of the city in 1734.

If you go to the linked article, I can save you a little time by noting that the research controversies mentioned at the beginning don’t have much to do with the major facts of the case. Also, I don’t always mean to refer people to Wikipedia, but sometimes that’s a natural place to start. Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, is available only by subscription – I subscribe for the sake of my research for editorial clients – and, in any case, seems too conservative or hidebound to include many subjects like the unfortunate Angélique.

Come to think of it, I have a literally hidebound set of Britannica on my shelf, and she’s not in there, either.