Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, July 16, 1915

A wonderful, glorious day – my heart is sailing the skies –

At sunset, several huge storms moving mightily along the horizon, in a wonderful array of colors; after the sun is gone, a huge flaming orange spot appears in the northern sky & startles the whole black landscape; the wind from a storm in the southwest already swept upwards the black clawing trees – My pencil was frantic. My heart sinks as I contemplate the shortness of life & the hugeness of my work – somehow I feel I have not fully grasped the full power of my work yet – Love of life has returned to me, but it is a different love & higher – I wonder where it was –

It is midnight, thunder in rumbling in the south and is lost at times in the music of wind-clattered black trees –

I went out to watch awhile – The sky overhead is starry, a sudden flash shows monstrous thunderheads on all sides – even as I looked into the stars, a shower clattered down in my face, lasted a few minutes & was gone – Furnace light lit up the east once; its red-orange glow was wiped out in a flash of lightning –

Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, July 16, 1915