Seasonality in art, creativity and life
Summer memories, how seasonality shapes creativity, a summer-inspired art collage, rooms that look like they were created for a specific season and my favorite summer dessert recipe
Here are my summer memories:
The shaded pool in my grandparents’ backyard was always cold, especially near the deep end. Heffie was trying to teach me to float on my back in the pool. I remember him demonstrating the technique, his pale white, round belly floating past me so peacefully, blocking out the sun.
I remember watching my sister Vivian at the beach as she made a little pond on the seashore and caught minnows to put in it. She played in the sand for hours, laying on her belly, covered in sandy mud.
My task during our family beach trips was to make guacamole for dinner. The scarcity of the vacation-rental pantry yielded a really excellent invention: Creole seasoning salt is excellent in guacamole. You should try it.
One day I’m sure I’ll pay for the awful sunburn I got on Memorial Day when I was in middle school. There was a big party and a gang of us had wandered down the street to play baseball at the park. I never reapplied sunscreen and neither did Isla. We were two English roses baking to a crisp.
The two summers that we were dating, José and I spent lazy afternoons and evenings walking the green campus of my college. It was warm and humid.
It was simple.
I can’t believe it’s the end of July but here we are. I’m taking the month of August off to rest, renew my creativity and soak up these last days of summer. I’ve prewritten four shorter editions of Choosy to share with you each week that I’m gone. They’re chock full of my favorite recommendations and inspirations. Thank you so much for being here. I’ll be back September 3. Until then!
SEASONAL INSPIRATION
A human fascination
I have found myself dreaming of Christmas. I keep thinking about decorating the house, enjoying our traditions and cozying up to watch old movies. It always happens this way: I look forward to the next season while I’m sitting in the one I longed for only a few months prior.
This must happen to everyone. There’s too much art and music about the beauty of each season to say otherwise. Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” might be one of the most famous pieces of musical composition. And Monet painted the haystacks from winter through summer, each in their seasonal glory.
Whenever I write this newsletter for you, I want to come up with something unique, something never done before — something special. Marveling at the beauty of seasonality doesn’t seem very unique, or sufficiently interesting, but it has been a huge source of inspiration for me as a writer. The topics I want to cover, the research I do, the art and literature I consume are all so closely tied to seasons. They are my inspiration.
I realized, though, that it’s beautiful to be a part of something that others have experienced before you. It feels unifying to think that I share the same adoration for spring that Monet did, just expressed in a different way.
There is something so human about enjoying each season in its time and simultaneously longing for the next one.
HIGH SUMMER PRODUCE
A glorious summer bounty
“Still Life with Flowers and Fruit,” Monet, 1869.
The border of an early 19th-century dress, from The Metropolitan Museum collection.
“Love-in-a-Mist, Sweet Cherry, and Spanish Chestnut,” from the Getty Museum’s collection is a page from a 15th-century calligraphy model book that was illustrated many years later to include fruits and flowers. The calligraphy was done by Georg Bocskay, the court secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. The illustrations were done by Joris Hoefnagel.
This photo from the blog “The First Mess” of cut tomatoes is so beautiful. The author writes vegan recipes online and in her cookbooks, too. Her food photography is gorgeous.
How beautiful are these pavlovas crafted by Anton Bruusgaard? The most glamorous summer dessert.
This letter written by Edouard Manet embellished with two apples painted in watercolors is simple and breathtaking.
Ann Wood makes beautiful art from paper.
Half a grapefruit for breakfast (source unknown) — doesn’t that sound summery? Do any of you like grapefruits? I’ve always aspired to but I can’t get past the bitter taste. Maybe with a sprinkle of sugar.
SENSE OF TIME
Rooms designed with seasons in mind
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a beautiful vacation house in Florida that a designer created for his family. When he was telling me about the house, he said that every home should have a sense of place. This particular space wasn’t overtly beach-y, but there were plenty of nods to its location near the sea.
This got me thinking: I wonder if people design rooms with time, or seasons, in mind, too? Seasonal changes certainly impact how I use my own home and how I experience it.
There are some spaces that seem to have been designed for a specific season. Now, I really don’t know how the designer came up with the room’s scheme — and it’s hardly practical to think it would be used only at that time — but do you see what I mean?
There’s no way this room above doesn’t make you think of a cozy, fall afternoon. It was designed by Brandon Schubert for a show house and has a collection of such rich, warm colors — many of them are Morris & Co. prints.
I think I could bear a long winter if I got to curl up in the moody, dramatic hues of this bedroom decorated by Remy Renzullo. Give me a good book and I wouldn’t leave for months.
How about this entryway in a Cotswolds house designed by Fran Keenan? The spring greens give us our cue, but also the umbrella and the baskets and the way the Dutch door opens to let in fresh air.
And this perfect tented room designed by Alan Dodd and featured in Cabana Magazine makes me think of summer. It looks like what I imagine a glamorous camping trip would be. And it makes me think of building blanket forts as a child.
TUTTI FRUTTI
Three produce-inspired decorative confections
I’m into the kitschy look of this fruit decor: alabaster stone fruits made in the 1960s, a blue-hued fruit-form topiary made in Japan and a pomegranate plate designed by a Rome-based ceramic artist (who designs many fruit-centric pieces).
GOOD CHOICE
My favorite summer dessert (revisited)
I shared this easy recipe for shortcake earlier this year and thought it would be fitting to share again. Take advantage of all the wonderful fresh fruit in the markets right now and serve them with this and a huge dollop of whipped cream. It’s quick, easy and oh-so-good.
Ingredients
1 3/4 C flour
1/4 C plain cornmeal
6 T cold butter
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. lemon zest
2 tsp. sugar
1 egg
2/3 C whipping cream
1 T butter
1 1/2 tsp sugar sprinkles (cane sugar or some coarser sugar will do fine)
Directions
Preheat oven to 425˚. Combine first seven ingredients in food processor and pulse until it resembles coarse sand. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can break up the cold butter with a fork until it resembles sand — like you’re making a pie crust.) Whisk together the egg and heavy cream and add to the flour mixture. Stir to combine. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead gently, 3-4 times. Pat into a six-inch circle, cut into six wedges. Separate on a baking sheet. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle the coarse sugar. Bake for 18-23 minutes until golden.
Serve with sliced fresh fruit (strawberries, peaches) and homemade whipped cream.
All the best,
Mary Grace