Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

     Slowly the beauty of the young cannas, seen thru the porch railing forced itself upon me, and without having planned it, I was soon at work on them, not ceasing until after five.
     Evening, B & I to N. Davis Rd to see a new fence being put up on some millionaire’s estate, and then to see the huge elm on Baker Rd. The sense of the power and nobility of this tree is remarkable. Later east on Michael Rd with the intention of visiting the iris swamps on Blood Rd. We had not proceeded far, when Bertha exclaimed “Look at the iris!” A swampy field full of them. It was an Elysian evening - vague rainy skies with pale gray blue clouds, with bright orange openings, a slight breeze, incredibly soft & mild, coming over the lush moist meadows from the south. To the east was a grove of half-grown elms, dark and mysterious. It seemed as if one ought never to do anything but eternally absorb the beauty of the world with all one’s mind & soul.
                                                                                June 19, 1937-
     About 10:30 P.M. with car in search of a tree-lined road without electric lights for studies to use in painting a moonlight picture. The germ of this picture comes from a note I made back in 1915, that rhapsodic year when I first began to see nature with the eye of an artist.