Six Paintings Archives

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

October 7, 2026

Our aspiring bank employee is our heroine today! I particularly love this woman; she's doing things MUCH more cleverly than many of us did 40 years ago when we were trying to take over the world...

Her inspiration is this lovely painting:

At the end of September, our heroine had a 40-piece wardrobe. She's never had any sense that anybody at her office every notices that she wears a lot of navy, a few accents colors, and nothing else. Clothing isn't nearly the most important thing at work!

This is her current collection of accessories. She knows that her co-workers have noticed these - especially her scarves! There are occasional questions about where she found something, and also occasional ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

October 5, 2026

Let's drop in our landscape designer, and on her favorite Georgia O'Keeffe painting:

At the end of September, as the weather began to turn grey and misty, our heroine had this 40-piece wardrobe:

and these accessories:

Our heroine has decided that she needs to go visit a couple of ongoing work sites; heretofore, she's only met with clients in the company offices. But she's been asked, and she will go!

And she really wants to get into the mood of the season - grey mist and fog with bright sunshine breaking through.

And she's seen a scarf that really calls her name. At a distance, the scarf seems mostly soft greenish-blue, but up close, there are lots of sunshiny details. The heart will ... View the Post

October 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

October 2, 2026

OCTOBER! I don't know why the very sound of the word fills me with relief - it's not as if I absolutely hate hot weather...

Our heroine this month is travelling to New York two weeks out of four, for the foreseeable future. And those New York types do a LOT of dining out, so she's thinking about hitting the holiday clothes early this year!

I'm almost nauseated by how much new clothing just hit the stores in the last two days; does EVERY store need to bring in literally hundreds of new garments each month? Sigh...

First and foremost, let's admire, yet again, the beautiful painting that is the inspiration for our heroine when she goes shopping for clothes and accessories:

Our heroine's current 40-piece ... View the Post

September 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

September 14, 2026

Almost halfway through September, and in Chicago, we're still wearing linen...

But our most elegant heroine, the architectural historian, is preparing to spend the autumn semester in Paris, teaching!

She shops VERY carefully, and bases her personal style on this most gorgeous painting of two saints:

She currently has this 36-piece wardrobe, which she could just toss into a (really big) suitcase and be just fine!

She will need another bag for her accessories, but they're what really makes this wardrobe sing:

She would like another skirt, and a couple more sweaters. When she saw this classic black jacket, she knew what her plan would be for the month:

Her wardrobe tucks neatly into the ... View the Post

September 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

September 11, 2026

Before we visit our heroine the wildlife statistical analyst, let's spend just a second admiring her favorite photograph:

One of the things that our heroine really likes about Common Shelducks is the high-contrast juxtaposition of colors on their body. She's keeping that in mind this month when she shops!

Right now, after her August shopping, her current wardrobe looks like this - certainly a wardrobe that would get you through quite a bit of time, or a VERY long trip:

These accessories are delicious...

Maybe it's because it's September, and maybe there's some magical, hidden fashion reason, but there's a lot of brown clothing available right now! Our heroine decides to take a look at where she ... View the Post

September 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

September 9, 2026

Our heroine the professional listener had great luck last month finding some brown clothes - maybe this month she will have luck with teal?

But first, let's look at the painting which is her inspiration. The art will endure long after all of our wardrobes have been dispersed to the winds...

After she bought her dark brown garments last month, this is her (currently 36-piece) wardrobe:

And these are her accessories. I swear, I could wear the same clothes every day if I had the right accessories!

The morning of our heroine's shopping adventure for September, she pulled out of her closet all of her greenish, teal-ish, aqua-ish clothes.

There's one big gap - she doesn't have a pair of pants in ... View the Post

September 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

September 7, 2026

Our bank employee has stumbled into a perfect bunch of things for her wardrobe... It's nice that colors come and go, so all of us get a chance to buy what we most love!

Our heroine's favorite painting is this beauty:

She had assembled a 36-piece capsule wardrobe for work by the end of August. She's so busy studying everything she can find about banking and finance that she's not interested in spending a lot of time worrying about what to wear!

She's delighted that she's taken the time to find excellent accessories! Having these things in her wardrobe make her morning much simpler:

Shopping was stressful for our banker this month, because she found SO MUCH that fits her wardrobe really well! ... View the Post

September 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

September 4, 2026

Starting with a beautiful painting, and finding yourself with a lovely, subtle wardrobe...

At the end of August, our heroine had the following wardrobe - a balanced mix of yellow accents with a touch of grey, and a wide range of cool-ish, dusty browns:

And her accessories are a thing of beauty - I'm always SO smitten with each heroine's combination of essentials and ornamentals!

Our heroine doesn't have any one thing she desperately needs, but she quickly saw the usefulness of a matching cardigan and pair of cords for cooler weather! And she's learning that any time she sees a classic top in a "new to her" shade of beige or brown, it's worth a second look...

She finds the 56-garment Template ... View the Post

August 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

August 12, 2026

Let's visit the duck, shall we? I think she's like a lot of us these days - calm on the surface, paddling like mad underneath...

Our heroine - the wildlife research statistician - is finishing up her stint at the very rural Vermont college...

At the beginning of August, this is the wardrobe our heroine has assembled:

And these are her most delectable accessories:

Maybe she's exaggerating, but she feels like EVERY person working with her right now puts on white pants or white jeans after work! She decides that she's going to look at how much white clothing she owns, and to think about making a bold wardrobe addition...

This is what she has right now, in white:

The other white thing that ... View the Post

August 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

August 10, 2026

So many of our heroines this months are absolutely buried (metaphorically speaking, of course) in advertising for fall clothes. It's so easy to see a handful of things that catch your eye - you buy on impulse - your tidy wardrobe starts to be less and less tidy...

Our heroines are responding by taking a hard look at what they already have, and identifying gaps in their wardrobe. Rationally, if our heroines are able to get dressed every day, their wardrobes don't actually have gaps! But we are going to shop for a new season (most of us!), and thus our heroines are going to try to do it sensibly...

Today's professional listeners has chosen this painting as her style-defining inspiration:

This wardrobe is ... View the Post

August 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

August 7, 2026

Let's check in our bank employee, with career goals clearly in her focus! She's chosen to dress in a manner reflective of the way the upper executives dress, while still keeping a foot firmly planted in her current position. It's a balancing act to clearly appear "promotion-worthy" while at the same time not alienating or offending your current co-workers...

In order to help her in her focus and shopping discipline, our heroine has chosen this painting and color palette as her wardrobe inspiration:

Before any August shopping, our heroine already has 32 pieces in her wardrobe. She's never at a loss as to what to wear!

A big reason that she dresses with ease every day is that she has a GREAT assortment of ... View the Post

August 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Starting With Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

August 5, 2026

So now that stores are filling up with clothes, I'm going to look at all six of our wardrobes and try to fill in gaps and find some balance for our heroines.

Our next painting is a favorite of our landscaping expert, who is most comfortable wearing mostly subtle colors found in nature:

Coming into August, our heroine had this lovely wardrobe, but it really doesn't reflect that she planned to use grey as an equal neutral with shades of brown. Hmm....

Her accessories are gorgeous...

Our heroine has four grey garments, and an ivory tee shirt. These are all excellent garments, but she's interested in looking for more grey. Oddly, it can be the most difficult color to find!

But since Autumn is ... View the Post