I established firmly the great black North motif in the sky, with wind clouds, the largest of which is spewing forth snow-flurries – I think I have established with the relation of the wind-blown red maples in bloom, and the sky an inevitableness which every picture must have — that is, the assurance that absolutely no other arrangement could possibly be right…. This picture gives me great joy. How slowly the “secrets” of my art come to me – It seems to me I have been searching all my life for this motif of Black North combined with the wind-cloud and snow-flurry.
Charles Burchfield, March 30, 1964