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An April Mood

1946–55

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Charles Burchfield, An April Mood, 1946–55 55.39

Charles Burchfield, An April Mood, 1946–55. Watercolor and charcoal on joined paper, 40 × 54 in. (101.6 x 137.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with partial funds from Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence A. Fleischman 55.39

All works by Charles Burchfield are reproduced with permission of the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation

Charles Burchfield found inspiration in unlikely places and he liked to paint outdoors in all kinds of weather. He said: “I like to think of myself—as an artist—as being in a nondescript swamp, up to my knees in mire, painting the vital beauty that I see there, in my own way . . . ” Burchfield thought of An April Mood as portraying a struggle between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, in which the sky formed an “April frown.”

“Look on a tree not only as a design but also as a living growing object which almost has emotions like ourselves.”

—Charles Burchfield

Times of the Season

What you’ll need

A camera, computer, printer, paper, markers or crayons

Visit your backyard, or travel to a nearby park with an adult to look at something from nature. Bring a camera!
Take a photograph of a scene that you especially like. What parts of nature will you include?
Note what time of year it is right now. Imagine what the same place might look like when the seasons change—in spring? Summer? Fall? Winter?
Print or make two copies of your photograph.
Leave one photograph as it is.
Use markers or crayons to change the other photograph to show a different season or time of day.

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9 WORKS