John Armstrong - The Church at Coggeshall Archives

Dressy Weekend? Start with a Scarf – The Raven Garden of Happiness by June Hunter

March 22, 2024

It's a dressy weekend - the weather will probably be warm... but there is always a chance of a cool snap!

But how to be dressy without bringing everything you own? Well, a tight color palette and planning ahead is always the way to go.

And how about starting with black and pretty accents?

Before you go down this path, you want to be ABSOLUTELY certain that wearing black isn't a problem. This wardrobe is actually designed for someone who's a prominent figure in a wedding, at which the bridesmaids will be wearing black dresses; I think she's okay with this!

She's wearing a very "normal" travel outfit - closed-toe shoes, and a cardigan for the inevitable freezing air conditioning... but she's rocking ... View the Post

Start With Art: The Church at Coggeshall, Essex by John Armstrong

September 11, 2014

What a cool painting! It shows the World War 2 damage to the church, and the "reveal" of the interior structure of the church is fascinating. So sad that such a lovely piece of art is the result of destruction...

From this, I selected two relatively minor colors in the painting as the neutrals, and then used the gorgeous pastels as the accent colors. The black is clearly visible, but I grabbed the sage green from the shrubbery that's relatively obscured on the left side of the painting.

I think what I'm trying to show here is that, although the painting itself is very light with muted pastels, it's still possible to pull together a wardrobe from these colors without enriching your dry cleaner. Capturing ... View the Post

Building a Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: White Center by Mark Rothko

December 14, 2014 Not colors for the faint of heart, but another example of how combining warm and cool colors is not just possible, but potentially a striking and memorable personal style statement.

... View the Post