…

Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) painted every season wearing a wide brimmed hat to keep the sun from making him squint. He wanted to see nature clearly, the dark with the light, knowing full well that he needed the darkness to see the light. Burchfield began to write about and paint the natural world when he was seventeen and continued to do both until his death. He is my favorite American painter. I grew up in the South Mountain in Pennsylvania and I saw the natural world breathing with its own spirit as aware of me as I was aware of it, of them. Every rock, every branch, every stream, call them deities if you want. They are there. Here are a few paintings, out of many, that Burchfield painted of the Spring.

Plowed Field, 1916

The Coming of Spring, 1917-43

Springtime in the Pool, 1922

Dusk, 1926

Skunk Cabbage, 1931

March Sunlight, 1932

The Open Door, 1932

The Glory of Spring, 1934-55

Pussy Willows, 1936

The Dark Ravine, 1946

Sunshine and Rain, 1946-47

An April Mood, 1946-55

Dawn in the Early Spring, 1946-66

The Glory of Spring, 1950

Birth of Spring, 1951-59

Photo: Charles Buchfield, NYC, 1941 by Arnold Newman
…