Are you tired of the cold, grey weather of winter? Or do you love the changing seasons? Artist Charles Burchfield ruminates in this 1952 diary entry about his fascination with the seasons, the weather, and humanity's often cruel indifference.
I Love the Winter Weather…
Are you tired of the cold, grey weather of winter? Or do you love the changing seasons? Artist Charles Burchfield ruminates in this 1952 diary entry about his fascination with the seasons, the weather, and humanity's often cruel indifference.
"'The great difficulty of my whole career as a painter, is that what I love most (i.e. weather, change of seasons) not only holds little of interest for most people, but in many of its phases, is downright disagreeable, and not even to be mentioned! I love the approach of winter, the retreat of winter, the change from snow to rain & vice-versa; the decay of vegetation; and the resurgence of plant-life in the spring—These to me are exciting and beautiful, an endless panorama of beauty and drama; but to them, the mass of humanity remains either bored & indifferent or actually hostile—And so I sit among my pictures, neglected, like them, by the buying public. There seems no solution for such a situation.'"
Source: Nannette V. Maciejunes and Michael D. Hall. The Paintings of Charles Burchfield: North by Midwest (New York, N.Y.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the Columbus Museum of Art, 1997).
Pictured: Charles Burchfield, 1893–1967, Still Life in Winter, 1951, watercolor and pencil on paper, 29 7/8 x 40 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design.