Charles Burchfield, Journals, May 8, 1938

PM. “The girls” to a movie, Arthur & I hold the fort. After we had disposed of the dishes, we worked in the yard. A rare cloud phenomenon. The whole sky was covered with a dense mass of dappled cloud except the extreme northern portion, where the cloud mass ended in a long, flat perfect arch formation extending to the east and west horizons, revealing low in the north a calm clear blue sky. The whole mass was slowly moving southward, and as it did so, and the sunlight became more imminent, a pale golden light filtered down onto the new trees, with all the unearthly quality of some of the calm Dutch Landscape paintings. Looking south, the effect was even more strange. The widening arch of blue sky cast a strong blue tone over all things, a cobalt saturation, which in the case of our aluminum-coated house addition, became a lurid metallic blue, with the clouded sky behind it strongly yellow (grayed).

Charles Burchfield, Journals, May 8, 1938