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
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