Heart-Shaped Box – Sunset, Tuesday, 9 June 2015

William Van Doren, HEART-SHAPED BOX. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on canvas, 24 x 30.

The haze in this rather strange (for me) painting is from life — it really was this hazy, and the clouds blue and diffuse — but also informed by a violet undertone in a painting I saw long ago but can never forget, “Late Afternoon, Winter, New York,” by Childe Hassam. I think most painters have a few things they saw when they were young that always inspire them, even if what they do looks nothing like the inspiration. My color is nothing like his but it was on my mind. As for the Nirvana song, I want to mention a recent cover by Father John Misty.