Charles Burchfield spent much of his childhood captivated by the woods near his home in Salem, Ohio. From a young age, the artist held an appreciation for the seasonal variation and capricious behavior of nature. Deeply attuned to his surroundings, Burchfield began producing dream-like and fantastic watercolors that combined his reverence for the natural world with the inner workings of his contemplative mind.

Burchfield’s health started to fail in 1958, at which point his now ritualistic nature walks became a less frequently observed element of his artistic practice. Despite his decreased mobility, Burchfield remained as active as ever – furiously jotting down forms and ideas in his sketchbooks. In a journal entry dated 5 December 1959, the artist wrote, “the last three weeks has been one of feverish mental activity for me – ideas crowding in so fast I can scarcely get them down on paper in the form of pencil drawings, let alone get them all started as pictures in watercolor” (J. Benjamin Townsend, Charles Burchfield’s Journals: The Poetry of Place, Albany, 1993, p. 537). Initiated in 1960, Hemlock in November No. 2 showcases the artist’s personalized interpretation of nature and embodies the whimsical spirit that continues to make Burchfield’s intricate watercolors so desirable.

The inspiration for Hemlock in November No. 2 came to Burchfield while studying his previous compositions, as he often did in order to rework earlier drawings with renewed vision. The present work is a revisition of his 1947 image, Hemlock in November. “In the studio – work on the “Hemlock in November” (based on the same titled one of 1947) begun last year,” he wrote in his journal (Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, vol. 60, October 19, 1961 p. 75). Both Hemlock in November and Hemlock in November No. 2 capture a snowfall in late autumn, the frosted trees and powdery surfaces symptomatic of the changing season. Each picture is flanked by slender trees sharpened like icicles, wrapped in an intricate latticework pattern reminiscent of Gothic windows, a classically Burchfield motif and one that underscores the artist’s interest in the intersection between spirituality and art. Fixated on this threshold between fall and winter, these Hemlock in November pictures are scattered with leaves in an array of vibrant autumnal colors, providing stylistic and tonal contrast between the fall and winter elements at play. Burchfield often filled his sketchbooks according to time of year and mood, thus it is unsurprising that a change in weather and season such as this one would interest him so greatly.

One of the most incredible aspects of Burchfield’s works on paper is the attention to detail and impressive interweaving of textures and colors. However, he began to feel that the size of his sheets limited his ability to fully express himself without overwhelming his compositions with imagery. The solution – to enlarge the works themselves. In a journal entry dated 19 November 1963, the artist describes this revelation: “... all day in the studio – A.M. – studying various pictures – the 1961 variation on “Hemlock in November” the solution came to me all at once – it will mean shifting the composition about and enlarging the picture (from 45 x 38 to 45 x 54) but it fills me with joyful anticipation” (Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, vol. 61b, November 19, 1963, pp. 272-73). Remarkably large for a Burchfield drawing, Hemlock in November No. 2 is the result of his experimentation with scale and amplification of his earlier work.

For Burchfield, revisiting old drawings and motifs provided him with an immense feeling of personal joy and nostalgia. It allowed him to revisualize and repurpose memories from his younger days, harkening back to a special moment or emotion he once experienced. Burchfield worked on Hemlock in November No. 2 from 1960-61, and later completed it in 1963, underscoring his life-long pattern of fine-tuning and rearranging his pieces. This watercolor is not only grand in scale because of the artist’s decision to enlarge it with adjoined sheets, but it is imposing in its depth of color and innovation. Unbothered by standard principles of form and color, Burchfield imparts his inner fantasies into this composition in order to create a dream-like and awe-inspiring interpretation of nature.