Camping in a Cul-de-Sac – Sunset, Thursday, 27 December 2012

William Van Doren, CAMPING IN A CUL-DE-SAC. Sunset from Woodbridge/Dale City, Prince William County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Every December 27th lately my sunset has been the view from the suburban home of my sister-in-law and her husband. Usually I have to figure out what to do about the fact that I’m facing several big houses that I don’t really feel like including. This time, as I stood in the cold on Mary’s porch, I decided I would move the scene (in my mind at least) just a few miles to the Occoquan reservoir, where I camped with my brother Steve and our friends Bobby Thompson and Gavin MacGregor, when we were around 13 or so, over a Christmas holiday. There was snow on the ground and the low that first night was 18°F. Bobby, a very funny, likable guy, was killed in Vietnam not many years later.

In the Suburbs of the Sun – Sunset, Tuesday, 27 December 2011

William Van Doren, IN THE SUBURBS OF THE SUN. Sunset from Woodbridge/Dale City, Prince William County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Third consecutive year that the December 27th sunset has come from a residential cul-de-sac in Woodbridge, Virginia (home of my sister-in-law).

Blue-Eyed Sunset of the Lowlands (Sunset, Monday, 27 December 2010)

William Van Doren,Blue-Eyed Sunset of the Lowlands (Sunset from Woodbridge/Dale City, Prince William County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Sunset, Saturday, 2 January 2010

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset at Woodbridge/Dale City, Prince William County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

I watched both the sunset proper and then twilight, with a view of the low-lying land and the big-box stores. I chose twilight, without the big-box stores.

Sunset, Sunday, 27 December 2009

William Theodore Van Doren. Sunset at Woodbridge/Dale City, Prince William County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 16 x 20.

This might be called Fantasy and Variations on a Suburban Sunset. It was indeed a thin cold clear sky with a reddish gold splash where the sun sank down, but I’ve omitted the houses and wide suburban courts (or cul-de-sacs) – the Potomac Mills shopping center is within walking distance – and reinstated the swampy woods. It wasn’t difficult, since I grew up just a few miles from here, when the entire area was mostly swampy woods.