Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Swamp in Spring, 1918; watercolor, 18 x 25 inches; Image from the Burchfield Penney Art Center Archives
To the Dead Swamp sketching –
It was a hazy afternoon – bright white spring beauty buds, sharply pointed, with writhing leaves sparkle in the dead grass, dead logs + limbs like grinning snakes – from afar the mourning doves –
The toads desultory chorus all afternoon, as the sun dies, + the rain gloom comes down, swells into a fury of sounds; uprooted trees glower at their reflections
Charles Burchfield, April 6, 1918