Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Fireflies and Lightning, 1964-65; watercolor, graphite and white charcoal, 40 x 54 inches; Purchase made possible with funds from M&T Bank, an anonymous donor, William P. and A. Laura Brosnahan, the Vogt Family Foundation and the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, 1998
Charles Burchfield, Journals, February 20, 1915
Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013
There is the smell of earth in the air. I feel as if I must find a Hypatica somewhere. Lake beautiful - a wonderful luminous green in long stretching streaks uniting with the slate blue sky - a symphonic Poem of color against which play yellow-twigged willows, red bushes, and green cottonwoods. A wind from N.E. which ruffled the lake slightly, and as we walked along, white caps commenced to appear, appearing and disappearing like fire - flies in a night woods in July. There was such a freshness of “look” about it that my desire was to jump naked in its waves. . . This our “Indian Spring” and it will be hard to return to winter again.
Charles Burchfield, February 20, 1915