The Song of Summer

“In summer,” says poet William Carlos Williams, “the song sings itself.”

If these paintings are any guide, to invite summer into your paintings, you have to let it be itself by putting the emphasis on mood.

Consider the painting by Monet titled “Cliff Walk at Pourville” (above). Monet downplays the figures in every way and gives us just enough hints to establish the geography. Factual details dispensed with, the whole painting opens up, allowing Monet to fill it with feeling – the feeling of summer: the colors are varied, bright, and yet soft, as if seen through a uniform haze. The lack of hard edges, sharp angles, or high contrasts amid the plain openness of this canvas evokes the expansive feelings of freedom and leisure. By minimizing distracting details and avoiding visual tensions, Monet makes this “cliff walk” be all about air and light.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le déjeuner des canotiers, 1882. Oil on canvas. The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.

It’s all about the joy of outdoor gatherings in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “The Luncheon of the Boating Party.” Though the figures have all been identified as friends of the artist (it’s set on the sunlit balcony of the Maison Fournaise, a restaurant that offered rowboat rentals), this image is “not anecdotal but monumental,” as Marjorie Phillips, the buyer’s wife, was inspired to write when it arrived from France in what would become the famous Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C: “In the light of time it does not matter much who the figures are. They are every man, all people.”

In other words, it’s not who they are (or were) that matters to us, it’s how Renoir paints them. It’s in the upturned faces, all of the figures’ relaxed gestures and mood, the way they interact, how their contrasting modes of dress, varied ages, and unequal stations in life melt into a single, easy moment of dappled summer calm: a monument indeed, to the good life.

Augustus Leopold Egg, The Travelling Companions, 1862. Oil on canvas. Courtesy Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

Augustus Leopold Egg’s mysterious painting “The Traveling Companions” shows two young women, near mirror imagers of each other, drowsy in shimmering dresses, travelling by train along the coast near Menton, on the Côte d’Azur. The mood is the relaxation and quiet summer brings; the swinging tassel of the window blind suggests the relentless movement of the train carriage, while the two identically dressed companions pass the travel time in their own closed, closed worlds.

David Hockney, Beach Umbrella, 1971, acrylic / canvas, 124.4 x 92.7 cm. Photo © Christie’s

With David Hockney, the first summery motif that comes to mind are his famous large-scale Los Angeles swimming pools. But this painting of a parasol on the beach, also painted on the Côte d’Azur, really captures the heat and exudes pure summer bliss. The iconic striped beach umbrella is ubiquitous on the beaches of the Mediterranean, offering shade for sun-drenched tourists.

Finally, and closer to home for this writer anyway, we bring you a summer evening moment by contemporary American painter Jeremy Miranda.

Jeremy Miranda, Torch (study), oil. 2024

In this study, the lone streetlight illuminating the tree branches could be anywhere in America. “For some reason,” Miranda wrote when posting the image to his Instagram page, “this kind of thing feels more indicative of summer than a beach painting.”

Many agreed. A number of Miranda’s followers (no doubt, of a certain generation) waxed nostalgic about growing up playing outside under just such a streetlight on sultry summer nights gone by.

Melimagee commented, “It really does capture the feeling. Good memories. Atmosphere. I hear the baseball game in the distance.”

Brandothegoat agreed about the sounds of summer, writing, “This post doesn’t have audio, but I’m hearing cicadas and crickets.”

Horwitzanne recalled, “As a kid, we waited for this time of night during the summer months to play our favorite game Spotlight. Basically hide and seek at night with a flashlight.”

Flaterheel3 wrote, “Your night paintings really get to me. I think mainly because they remind me of being young, looking out my windows. That was back when there was no AC, breeze coming in, blowing the curtains, and looking out, watching the night sky.”

And schlaime65 summed up this and many a summer painting well, with the following: “Can totally feel the humidity and the warm breeze in this painting. Makes me want to go get ice cream 😊”

Kathryn Stats clearly loves painting the summertime. For proof, look no further than her 24 x 36 oil painting, “High Summer.”

Kathryn Stats, High Summer, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

Rather like Monet’s, Stats’ painting, “High Summer,” courts a warm and lazy mood with softened edges and bright yet “hazy” colors. Something similar’s going on, but in richer, denser tones, within Stats’ painting titled “Merced River,” another 24 x 36 oil (below). Here, it’s summer’s warm lush greens and cooling waters that carry the day.