Imaginary Spaces of Summer

Writing with the Seasons - July 2022

Welcome to ‘Writing with the Seasons,’ a collection of writing prompts, ideas and inspiration that follow the rhythms of the natural world as the year unfolds. Thank you for joining me on this journey, month by month.

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How have artists and poets captured this moment of high summer, when nature is in full bloom and the days feel longer, lighter and more leisurely?

Helen Frankenthaler’s ‘Mountains and Sea’ is a beautiful, luminous depiction of Nova Scotia, a place she’d visited on holiday. With her distinct soak-stain technique—she thinned oil paint, poured, dripped or sponged it onto a canvas on the floor and then allowed it to soak—she created shapes that spread and pooled.

Helen Frankenthaler’s ‘Mountains and Sea’ (1952)