A squall is a sudden violent gust of wind or a localized storm. Summer Squall shows a coastal storm scene. The water and sky are represented by swaths of blacks and blues. A jetty appears on the horizon. This structure, which houses a small red light, is overwhelmed by the storm. The sun, shrouded and weak, hovers in the upper left of the composition. In creating abstracted art, Carter carves away at reality, what can be seen with the naked eye, until only the essential representational parts remain.

Frederick Carter was born in Galveston in 1925. He studied architecture at Texas A&M before joining the U.S. Navy in 1943. Following the war, Carter attended the Franklin School of Professional Arts in New York. He graduated with honors and returned to Texas. Carter worked as a commercial artist in Houston before moving to El Paso to work in advertisement. His works have been exhibited at the El Paso Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.