With our special Mother’s day “decorations” (corsage of red rose buds and white carnations for Bertha and a white carnation for me) we set out for church – a fine sunny morning –
Dear Friends:
… I do not know if I told you this or not, but “Autumnal Fantasy” was one of a group of four pictures that I thought of as comprising a “Symphony of the Seasons"
There is an excitement in riding on a street-car when you have no objective--At a certain point the canal looked so interesting we got off and made for it, came to some locks
Thinking of an artist who yearns to compose wonderful music, yet what he sees with his eyes is the overwhelming instinct –
I miss the rattling swamp at sunset time when the birds are calling cozily twittering as if in lazy conversations.
A strange evil day - earth soggy -- heavy lowhanging mist clouds - twilight even at noon - Walking along wood walled road I heard a wood-thrush's song -
.... However today I decided to introduce on of the breaks in the clouds shining thru with cobalt sky, which will add to the effect.
I awoke about 7:00, and was annoyed to see the air full of flying snowflakes! (Later reports told of drifts 18” deep at Little Valley, necessitating the use of plows on the roads!)
1915 was the year that ideas came to me which were to haunt me the rest of my life; ideas and visions of paintings that were far beyond my ability or knowledge to carry out and still are...
My little every day world is transformed. A while ago I sighed for new and strange scenes to conquer. Now the prospect of painting the most familiar tree or creek-bank is exciting.