Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, April 11, 1946

To country below Boston (near NW of Springville [leave 219 at Hill Road to Springville, then by Moore Rd. to Genesee, turn left and then first right hand road.] 

Shortly after entering on the Moore Rd. a pair of huge old maples impelled me to stop. The air of a wonderful cool tang – a little snow, recently fallen, in the shadows and at the base of tree trunks – I try to see a subject in the maples, but the light is not right – I wanted to get a huge tree between me & the sun, so as to bring out its blackness in a silhouette – There were some fine old dead hemlocks trunks here.  

Shortly after turning right off the Genesee Road, I find two more huge maples in a wild spot. Here I parked determined to stay. A short reconnaissance revealed one of them, standing in a thick undergrowth of maple seedlings & young hemlocks, to be a tree of a powerful personality – the light was shortly going to be right, and so I decided to make a painting.  

Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, April 11, 1946