pastels Archives

Start with Art: Abstracts by Tony Daley

February 26, 2021 The Sun is Out!

It's not going to be insanely warm at the gardens, but warm enough that she can take a couple of days to check on the bee hives...

So she decides that she's going to wear pretty pretty pretty colors, and pretend to be one of the flowers...

She dresses somewhat warmly for the trip...

She's not sure how long she's going to stay, nor how warm it will be, so she plans to pack an assortment of possibilities...

To start, she makes certain that she has her beige cardigan, shorts, and cropped pants. Her tan skirt is almost the same color, so she adds that...

Then a couple of tee shirts, a cardigan and her favorite floral top...

When she gets to the ... View the Post

Perfect 10 Packing? Start with Art: Untitled (Acrylic #1) by Ed Clark

January 29, 2021

I've been thinking a lot about 10 garments in a Travel Capsule Wardrobe, like in the ones that I'm positing for the heroines who are managing wardrobes in 2 homes...

And I thought that maybe it was worth revisiting the Perfect 10 template that is one of my personal favorites!

Calm is still in short supply, so let's look at more calming art, eh?

Such lovely colors, and such a relaxed and stable feeling to this...

So let's imagine a heroine who has to make a 3 or 4 day trip - fairly often - but never with any sort of advanced notice. A morning phone call could mean "out the door and on the road" by lunch-time...

Thus, she keeps some things ready for this adventure, starting with a travel outfit ... View the Post

Start with Art: With My Back to the World by Agnes Martin

November 6, 2020 Calm...

She wants accents for her wardrobe this month to be calm, relaxed and gentle - like this:

Her core wardrobe is grey - she loves it. She looks good in it, she likes the way it looks in her closet, and it just feels like her!

But this year, she wants a little bit of gentle color! And so she starts with yellow, including a skirt that might not be a perfect fit in her wardrobe, but which she chooses NOT to resist...

Sometimes, you have to break out a little bit!

The next color isn't at all easy to find! It doesn't make it any easier when it's called all KINDS of names - mineral blue, light turquoise, silver blue, aqua...

But she persists and is delighted:

She originally thought ... View the Post

Start with a Sweater: Boden Fair Isle Crewneck

October 23, 2020 I'm the ONLY Person Available?

She knows the answer... When the tech who works at the clinic finally took a few days off, there would have to be someone on-site in the data center, and there really isn't anyone else who knows how to repair things. ("Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?")

So she's going to suck it up and wear her new sweater! In fact, she's going to build her entire travel wardrobe around the colors of her sweater. Why not? She's going to either be in the data compound or quarantined in her room at the visitor's center...

She starts with 3 outfits that she knows she wants to take with her:

They've already seen snow, so she's wearing her serious boots for the ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting Church Tower in Zeeland by Piet Mondrian

October 12, 2020 It Didn't Take Long...

When she was initially invited to the cathedral for a long weekend of leading tours, she carefully chose her color palette...

and she packed a very pretty travel capsule wardrobe. She has a bit of a crush on the Choir Director, and is happy for a chance to spend a few days hanging about...

Well... it was wonderful. The tours were among the best that she's ever given - the participants were all VERY interested in what she was teaching them, and there weren't an excessive number of "know-it-all" guests...

And dinner with the Choir Director was... magical. Amazing. Better than she could have hoped...

So when the members of the Congregational Committee asked if she ... View the Post

Start with Art: Coastal Image by Theo van Rysselberghe

May 19, 2020 We're Working from Home Indefinitely The work environment at her office is usually super-dangerous, from a virus perspective - people in each other's faces all day, sitting too close, yelling back and forth, passing food...

So when they announced that she would be working from home for at LEAST the rest of the summer, she was delighted!

She's working towards calmness; this is her inspiration:

Her color palette is light, and soft. She's working at home, so she won't sit on something disgusting on a bus or train. She doesn't eat at her desk, so she's not worried about spills...

She's not on screen that often, but she knows that she needs to be prepared every day to pull on a cardigan or over-shirt, ... View the Post

Adding Pastel Wardrobe Accents! Expanding a Beige & Olive Weekly Timeless Wardrobe

April 22, 2020

She, too, has a wardrobe core of olive and beige, just like that of her friend from Monday's post. But her inspirations for accent colors of quite different!

She saw this painting in Paris, years ago, and took a photograph of it. She has, since then, found a poster of the painting, and hung it in her bathroom! Why not... It reminds her, and keeps her focused.

While there are quite a few possible accent colors hidden in this wonderful work of art, our heroine made her choices:

Of course, she's going to start with her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe 13 core garments, in her 2 neutrals:

She knew in her heart that she was craving light, and softness, and prettiness. She decided to listen to her heart, and ... View the Post

A Wardrobe with Multiple “Moods” or Accent Colors? Start with an Artist: Romaine Brooks

August 9, 2019

Wednesday, our heroine chose accessories and was quite well-prepared for a lengthy trip...

But now, she's really going to travel!

Just to recap, she built her initial travel wardrobe around this stark but captivating painting:

Her initial travel capsule wardrobe is quite complete...

She's made a very tidy start to a quite large travel (or seasonal?) wardrobe:

And her accessories are similarly well planned:

But now, she's going away for 13 weeks! A guest teaching post? A short course at a foreign school? Who could guess...

She knows that there are plenty of women who could travel forever wearing nothing but black and grey, but she's thinking that she wants to introduce some accent ... View the Post

Start with Art: Vocal Fabric of the Singer Rosa Silber by Paul Klee

If you have information about Rosa Silber, please share; I couldn't find anything in English about her! We can certainly conclude that she inspired Paul Klee...

An Unusual Prescription But the conductor, the director, and her personal physician all agreed - go to the resort and sit on the veranda for 12 hours a day for the rest of the week! She needs warm, humid air in her throat and lungs...

She's singing the role of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, starting next weekend! This is NOT the time to have her voice get weak and faint... but it's just that it needs rest. Rest? She can DO that...

It's only a 3 hour drive...

Maybe she will be able to eat her meals on the terrace? She can't go into the sun - even though she is ... View the Post

Start with Art: Second Season with Grey Fireworks by Helen Frankenthaler

Remember our friend the political candidate? Of course she won her election...

She campaigned wearing a small wardrobe based on this painting, and color palette:

Now, she's getting ready for the legislative session in the fall! She's taking the train to the capitol on Tuesday mornings, and staying until until Friday afternoon... Trying to get familiar with the routine, and the policies, and the procedures. Even though the legislature isn't in session, there's plenty to do, and so MUCH to learn...

Since she had such luck with her wardrobe during the campaign, she decides to make only the slightest of changes to her wardrobe plan...

This scarf, in her travel outfit, is much more beautiful than you can see in this ... View the Post

Start with Art: Tete Blanche et Rose by Henri Matisse

Ride up With Me! "I'm going up to the beach house for the weekend - I'm going to drive, so you can just go with me!"

Her wardrobe palette is deeply invested in black, but for this weekend she eschewing the dark, and going straight-up pastels!

So she tossed her bag into the back seat...

She was expecting the air conditioning to be on full blast, so she pulled a shirt on over her tank top...

She doesn't expect to swim all that much, but she takes her suit along just in case! She does plan to walk along the beach a lot, so water shoes are definitely in the bag...

Generally, at least some people go out for a meal or two, or they go into town to buy groceries and browse around... She makes sure that she ... View the Post

April Travel: Start with Art – Madame Leon Clapisson by Renoir

Ah, our heroine the opera singer! Remember her from back in January?

She's not the star, but she channels her inner diva quite well!

Most of the time, she's in a costume, so she doesn't need to pack a lot... This week, she's off to her favorite city, to finish up the "regular" opera season with a role in 1 of her favorites. She's had a good season...

This is her inspiration, in so many ways!

She realized long ago that she's made to wear dresses and skirts! So she focuses on navy dresses, with cardigans, jewelry, and scarves to add that bit of drama and femininity that she loves so much... (she was BORN to be an opera singer...)

She loves working with such a neutral, almost predictable base in her wardrobe; it's sort ... View the Post