Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

 A.M. making box & packing pictures—took it to express office before lunch.M. to Buffalo, Peggy here.—Apr. 5. Tuesday—To the “Big Woods”—A gray sombre [sic] day; pleasantly cool.I had in mind an “eye of God” brooding over a landscape” idea, and chose a small woodland pool as the spot for improvising on the theme. In the pool was the ghostly rotting trunk of a fallen white birch. A wind from the S.W. sprang up [strikethrough] developed presently, and its soft roar thru the tree tops was fine to hear. All day on the sketch, with difficulty in fighting a too realistic approach.After finishing it, several excursions in the woods for rotted wood. The southern wind carried with it the first drops of rain, pleasant in the face. Lunch and then home. —April 6—Wednesday.It became apparent this morning that I had been inhibited yesterday in the “eye of God” motif—So after some experimenting, I made it jet black, and the whole picture gained power.