Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

14.               April 28, 1934 - (Saturday)

     The ground has frozen hard this morning, as in mid-winter;

     A clear cold morning, with blue sky & a few white clouds. I made a sudden decision to hire a fellow to take me to beyond Cowlesville to work on Black Locusts picture. Take Skippy along – he does not enjoy ride.

     After I am all ready to paint (or so I thought) I find I left oil brushes at home. Try to paint with water color brushes & realize that the subject is one for water color, and that since I made the start of this picture a few years ago, I have changed my ideas of painting so much that I no longer can use this start – With a feeling of frustration I pack up, and strike off eastward to explore a woods. Here I eat my lunch sitting on a stump (Skippy had his before – a piece of raw beef purchased on the way.) A fine day, like the middle of March, a Maple-sap day – I spend the afternoon wandering around in the woods & ravines. The wintry look of the landscape with the sun so far north has a strange look – so would our “Springs be when just coming out of, or going into, a great ice-age.