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L to r: Martha's Vineyard, 2011; Roman Vaults, 2008; The Cotswolds, 2011 richly polychrome, full of shadows and light. These buildings positively shimmer." In effect, Van Doren has found that an attractive building, particularly one of brick, stone, stucco or any medium that will age in a graceful, aesthetically pleasing manner, is worthy to behold, and that a painting of it can be as much of a contemplative and enlightening experience for the viewer as gazing at a magnificent portrait or majestic landscape. Take, for example, the Louvre. First a fortress, later a royal palace and, after the French Revolution, a museum, it is one edifice that "I never get tired of looking at," says Van Doren. "There's a wonderful crescendo to that mansard roof, which was a great contribution by the French to Renaissance architecture." The building "is a masterpiece of solids and voids . . . . It's 'classicism on steroids.' " While the paternal side of Van Doren's family were littérateurs, his mother, Mira Jedwabnik, was an artist. "I remember the smell of the paint," he says, recalling his early boyhood. "My mother had a studio on the top floor of our house in Cambridge; that's when my father was teaching English at Boston University and Brandeis." HYLAND