Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, August 28, 1913

Clouds!

While other phenomena of nature delight us and arouse the poetry in us, I do not believe anything quite stirs our imagina­tion as do clouds. I will perhaps exclude trees from this statement and also the wind. But even then, both of these are in a way tan­gible to us, the trees physically, while the winds come down around us. But the clouds are distant and are ever vanishing and forming. Scientists may explain to us of their structure and formation, but it brings them no closer to Earth. There are as far away as ever and just as mysterious.

This was a day of clouds. Beginning with a clear sky and bright sun, the morning soon turned into one of dreamy greyness; the sky was smeary with solid grey clouds, and the sun barely shone enough to make shadows except for moving objects. At evening the effect was quite different. Wild-looking clouds, driven by a capricious wind that blew first in one dir­ection and then another.