Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

13. feel the new portions of ground should “Season” thoroughly before the final painting of the original is done. This precludes doing serious work on the whole picture for a whole year.

     Perhaps however I am not ready to really work on the picture as I feel stale for indoor work, and feel the need of working – or studying – directly from life and nature.

     Discussing the picture with Bertha; she pointed out that the plowed ground prominent in the foreground, (and indeed, one of the major motifs of the picture, as I feel a mystical significance to the turning over of the dark rich earth, before the onslaught of winter) - - - that my planning was not correctly done. Not having observed carefully I thought, as I suppose most laymen do, that a field is simply plowed by beginning at one end and going back and forth until it is done.

     Her memory of it, was as follows.[i]

               [SKTECH]

The field is first divided into a series of “lands” (A,B,C,D)