Not Entirely Forgotten (Sunset, Tuesday, 28 June 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, NOT ENTIRELY FORGOTTEN (Sunset/Twilight from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

After five hours of storms, the clouds had an after-party, and went through a dizzying array of changes. At times the sky looked like a Turner, then like a Tiepolo, then there was a curious green layer of cloud, and what had been gold turned orange-pink. At some point I had to give up trying to absorb it all – try to forget and just paint.

Sunset, Wednesday, 9 September 2009

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

You can think Canaletto, you can think Giorgione, you can think Cassatt, Sisley, Kahlo, Hiroshige or Poussin. You can think Turner (some may find it odd that I don’t – this is probably because I ‘discovered’ him, as in really noticed his amazing work, only very recently) or Whistler or Munch or de Kooning or O’Keeffe. Doesn’t matter. If you have any integrity at all, when you get a brush in your hand sooner or later you’ll just paint, and there probably won’t be a whole lot you can do other than paint like yourself.