The first dandelion in our backyard.
At our feet were many hepaticas in bloom. One odd one at the base of a tree – two fully formed flowers on one stem.
Learning tonight that a means for earning a living and be able to work at my art at the same time, has vanished in thin air...
Working on ‘Good Friday Mood’ with great gusto and assurance. A bitter mood. (I think I shall give it a non-committal title such as ‘April Mood’ –). At the end of the day asked B [Bertha] out to see it. She liked it—thought it was almost frightening.
Early Spring Picture – Foreground cool + dk snow patches – middle ground in big marshy valley with orange sunlit trees – distance a big tree covered hill in a haze –
The ground is wormy with bloom – The air is very thick + opaque some objects are only half seen –
First downy bud of hepatica (back of garage) – The vermillion cup fungus has started to grow – (4 or 5 small ones). Spring beauties in bud.
Sunny – with the same new air – current from the North –
A.M. pencil studies of the hepaticas which are in their prime – that is to say in all stages of bloom from buds to wide-open –
a.m. – Some “fruit shopping” & to Saville’s in O.P. [Orchard Park] to get a corsage for Bertha (chose what they called a Siberian Orchid)
To produce great work an artist must first have a high aim and ideal. Then his difficulties and obstacles will not hinder him ―