One of the key markers that signals to readers you’re going to be reading a romance novel is in its cover design. It often features cartoon-like characters, vivid colours that pop off the shelf, and sometimes two people embracing (or turning away from each other depending on what romance sub-genre we’re talking about). Bestselling author Carley Fortune of Every Summer After and Meet Me at the Lake, subverted these expectations when Canadian artist Elizabeth Lennie’s dreamy lake paintings became the go-to cover art for her novels.

It’s really a perfect match, with Fortune’s books set within Canadian cottage country, and Lennie’s art that comes from her time at a lake up in northern Ontario. I had the privilege of chatting with Lennie (we conversed over email) about how the collaboration came to be, what summer means to her, and why she doesn’t look for inspiration to get to work.

How did your book cover collaboration with Carley Fortune come about?

The designer of Carley’s books found me. In 2020 I posted a photo of a recent painting to my instagram account and a request came in to license the image for a book by a new Canadian author. It’s not something I pursued in my painting practice. I found it quite synchronistic though because I love to read. And to Carley’s good fortune, and mine, the book became a best-seller, and now a TV series, and that book led to five more. I was delighted to be asked to continue.

The art on Carley's books are becoming a signature for her. How does designing each cover differ from the next? Are you given any hints about the content in the book before you create something?

I am given specific notes from the designer, source imagery and a colour palette range. I was lucky to read a draft of Carley’s third book but mostly the designer will include plot notes and character descriptions in her specific design notes and I paint to that.

On your site you mention how your work explores the "memory myth of summer." I love what that evokes. What does summer mean to you in terms of how it shows up in your work?

I use personal memories as a springboard to imagined memories. I think most of us have cherished memories of our real or imagined childhoods. I started painting when my three daughters were young. We owned a cedar cottage on Rabbit Lake in Temagami, Ontario. I think we rediscover our best selves in nature. When the girls were young we sent them to a wilderness camp on Lake Temagami, a short distance from our cottage on Rabbit Lake. They always came home refreshed and renewed. There was one August Long Weekend on Rabbit Lake where all the kids in the bay were playing in the water, trying to stand on a deadhead log, and we captured a few photos from that day. I had no idea those photos would spark my imagination a few years later. I started to paint that series not realizing how impactful it would be to others. It is the genesis of my “liquid landscapes.”

Can you walk me through your process from creating a painting, start to finish. Where do you create? How long does it take?

I start with images that trigger my imagination. I am drawn to light and shadow. I select parts of images and collage them into narratives and place them in water—lake, pool, ocean—often painting six to eight paintings at the same time in rotation until a theme appears. I always include a figurative element and paint people I know. I recently left my large light-filled studio of nine years to move back to the attic studio of my home and it is taking me some time to adjust but I am hoping it will propel me into something new. Not all paintings make it. I often paint over unresolved or overworked paintings, discovering a lovely pentimento in the process. My most successful paintings paint themselves in a few passes, or they are reworked older pieces that have lain abandoned for months.

“I love the process and so I paint every day, or as many days as I am able looking for an entry into my creative flow. The artist Chuck Close says inspiration is for amateurs, the rest just get to work.”

What's inspiring you right now?

I am not feeling particularly inspired at the moment. I love the process and so I paint every day, or as many days as I am able looking for an entry into my creative flow. The artist Chuck Close says inspiration is for amateurs, the rest just get to work. And so I start whether I feel it or not. Music helps. I paint best to Keith Jarrett…something about how he thinks his way through his piano improvisations helps me think.

Anything you're currently feeling nostalgic for?

I feel nostalgic for my youth. I feel 27, sometimes 17, and so I think I paint what those made-up memories are, as I see my daughters move through their lives. I have a computer in my studio and sometimes I will take a break from painting and sit down and write another chapter in my Autobiofictionography: Made-up true stories from my life. The artist/writer Douglas Coupland says creativity comes from the same source, we just express it in different media. So I write and paint imagined stories. The only difference is the writing is for me only.

Best thing to do in the summer?

Best thing to do in the summer is go for a reef dive then read a book in a hammock by the sea.