A.M. to Frick Museum — the beauty of Vermeer overpowering — What a truly great painter he is — Rembrandt’s Self-portrait — the new Cezanne, El Greco’s St. Jerome – the St. Francis by ? – Organ music (a piece by Bach & one by Handel). What balm it was to me, after the cheapness of the night before.
I realize this: that making so many pencil notes is but another form of procrastination—
Working all three days on painting of Christmas tree with our front room, the middle arch & part of the middle room.
In one of my imaginings today, I was making a trip thru the mountains enroute to the Pacific, and suddenly it came to my mind to imagine a thunderstorm in the mountains; at once I saw this...
"...The soggy earth & rivers of water brought up spring yearnings. As I looked out over the irresistible swamps, I somehow felt that that was my place..."
More and more I like the painting I did yesterday – It has in it all the excitement of a mid-January afterglow that I used to experience on my way home from Mullins – I called such days in midwinter then “January Spring”
P.M. – Visit to Olmsteds – When I called to see if they wanted us, Evie said Harold had broken his wrist in two places about six weeks ago — / Had the cast taken off yesterday – She said they would be delighted to have us –
We are faced with a situation we, as a nation, cannot avoid, either with honor or with safety, and we have to see it thru, but it is all depressing to me, and keeps me from doing my work.
A January Thaw! The snow melting on the trees drips stickily into the soggy snow – now & then the crash of a larger piece of snow.
The last day of the year – a cold but bright and sunny day, with a film of fluffy snow on the bare ground. Where there are weeds, the snow is not apparent...