Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

110. beginning of the fall season, free to paint and start new pictures.

     Undoubtedly, some of the feeling that I am missing vital ideas, arises from the very fact that I can't turn my mind to them. When some unavoidable circumstance prevents my painting, then it is that I see pictures on all sides; but let the obstructive circumstance pass, and at once my mind is sterile. Nevertheless there is a basic reason for my regret, for there is a vital season of change that always goes unrecorded by me + that is, since I have been earning my living entirely by painting - the necessity for getting pictures finished and framed for the market, is one that can't be avoided, and left to my own inclination, probably I would never finish a picture, unless, it happened by good luck to be completed at the time of the original painting.

     Undoubtedly my working scheme is wrong - for never should there be a season when I should not be free to paint as the mood seized me.

     In this state of mind, I see unusual beauty on every hand - every (CD), every tree, bush, or weed becomes rich in picture possibilities - Even news items in the daily paper are apt to set my mind on fire with visions of great landscapes. Thus in reading of the current race going on in the basketball world between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers, there came to my mind, a vast landscape taking in the whole country from here to St. Louis, with that city bathed in an ethereal light from the far away September morning sun.