My Sunny Valentine (Sunset, Monday, 14 February 2011)

William Van Doren, MY SUNNY VALENTINE (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Sunset, Sunday, 14 February 2010

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

In order to make a Valentine’s Day sunset I had decided, and was fully prepared, to make up a sky if necessary. I was thinking of a cadmium red and alizarin crimson sun on a field of rose. I was ready to jump the shark. But then the sky started taking the matter out of my hands. Forty minutes before sunset I was surprised to see a heart-shaped opening in the clouds. Seriously. It wasn’t there at sunset – instead, at sunset there was a very large heart-shaped cloud formation to the west and south, right over a glowing rosy red orange horizon. I’m not lying – a heart in the sky. So, even if you didn’t get one, you got one. As you should.

Update on Monday, February 22, 2010 at 11:24AM by BVD

Available as a fine art print, framed or plain, from Imagekind.