Sunset (Twilight), Saturday, 22 August 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Except for the obligatory excerpt in a high school text, which apparently I didn’t find very interesting at the time, I came to Thoreau late – or perhaps I should be a little more optimistic and say lately – within the last four years. So if I say that painting each day’s sun sometimes seems a little like going out to Walden in instalments, it’s something that wouldn’t have occurred to me at the beginning – or else I might have done it sooner! For me this deep oval of sky, that I visit every day, is very much a sort of pond.

Today at two we had overcast and embedded thunderstorms. The point of view is almost the same as in last night’s sunset painting, just a little farther left, or north.

Pencil, watercolor pencil, chalk pastel and wash, 5 x 7.