Six Paintings - 12 Months Archives

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #6: Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

November 10, 2025

Our last installment for this month - one of my favorite paintings!

This heroine gave some serious thought to what her holiday seasons promises to bring, and came to the conclusion that silky pants and a pretty blouse will be more than adequate for her festive needs. A couple of cardigans that can be dressed up, and some fun star and moon accessories, finish up her November shopping:

please note that "silky" does NOT equal "silk." Neither does "satin." There's a lot of... confusing clothing descriptions in the world...

When she brings home her new things, she finds that everything blends in pretty much perfectly! There is always that satisfaction when you are disciplined with your ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #5: Street Lights by Stefan Johansson

November 7, 2025

These aren't really the colors that we think of for the winter holidays, but there's more than enough red and holly green in the world...

If one is patient, and disciplined, it is possible to find lovely dressy things that are perfect with this wardrobe:

Remember that if you're looking for a holiday brooch, Talbots is where you want to look first!

The gold sequins blend pretty well into this wardrobe, and the two sweaters are just right:

This heroine has some of the BEST scarves!

And our heroine already had a gold handbag and gold sandals; in warmer weather she can wear her gold sequined garments with sandals rather than ballet flats. Choices are nice to have!

Our heroine ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4: Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

November 6, 2025 Breaking the Rules - Sometimes You Just Want To! Our heroine has this lovely painting to inspire her wardrobe choices:

Our heroine needs a dressy outfit for a VERY special occasion. She looked and looked at her "usual" colors - especially teal. But she came back, and back again, to these two (very expensive!) pieces in sequined taupish brown. And she finally caved...

Now, her wardrobe doesn't look a lot different, except she now has these two sequined garments that sort of stick out...

As always, are we smitten with her jewelry and scarves?

The shoes and bag that she bought for her event don't really blend in with everything else. This is okay; imagine the flats and bag worn with denim, or with ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3: Sun, Water Maine by O’Keeffe

November 5, 2025

I love this painting - it's not unlike the view from my window...

Our heroine's preparation for the holiday season is pretty simple - she buys a simple sweater that has sequins knitted into it! (I confess, I have a black cabled cashmere sweater with sequins, and I wear it a LOT more than I ever imagined...)

She adds in a pair of winter white wool pants, a classic Aran-style crewneck, and a navy turtleneck. Some gold accessories, and she's ready for anything her schedule might thrown at her!

She has fewer beige/ivory clothes than she has navy and green. This makes sense to me; the lighter colors aren't as versatile for many of us.

The time that I'm always tempted by a wardrobe is when I look at ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2: Of by Elizabeth Magill

November 4, 2025

I'm still able to find lovely clothes for this VERY limited color palette. Can you imagine wearing only two colors?

Years ago, when I was a bookstore chic(k), I wore only black and white. For years...

Of course, if you wanted to be strict to this painting, there could be much more white, and a denim-ish blue:

Her new tops are all quite festive, but her skirt can be worn for all kinds of things throughout the autumn and winter...

She still has fewer grey garments that in the other colors! Of course, I could move the white things onto the grey page...

I'm very smitten with her jewelry and scarves...

Her new clothes give her a LOT of options for getting dressed-up these next few ... View the Post

November 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1: The Swan No. 24 by Hilma Af Klint

November 3, 2025

I'm always so excited to start these posts each month! Here's today very thought-provoking, but beautiful, inspiration painting:

So I seem to remember that most of us felt like the Weekly Timeless Wardrobe template wasn't really serving a useful purpose at this point, so I've discarded them! Instead, this month especially I'm going to concentrate on getting all of our heroines dressed for the upcoming bundle of holidays.

Today's heroine is getting a couple of velvet pieces, which can be worn with other fabrics to instantly bring a festive feeling to any day. And I'm also giving this lovely lady a couple of cashmere sweaters - another instant upgrade for anything you wear. Yes, they're expensive. If cared for ... View the Post

October 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #6: Street Lights by Stefan Johansson

October 8, 2025

This painting feels like an October evening to me...

For no good reason she can pinpoint, this heroine plunged headfirst into a feast of green! She was particularly thrilled to find her lime green cotton crewneck sweater, since she's loved her cardigan in this color... And her cardigan jacket matches her new pants - a suit is never a bad idea!

Here's another Weekly Timeless Wardrobe that's gone somewhat off the rails - not that it matters! No rules, and the most important thing in any wardrobe is that we have what we need, and what makes us happy to wear.

This month, I moved the five truly orange garments onto the same page with the gold and white pieces. It looks good!

I've always pictured ... View the Post

October 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #5: Pines by the Sea by Bertha Lum

October 7, 2025

Three REALLY easy neutrals (brown, denim and white) paired with teal, which is an accent that lots of us seem to love!

Could you keep the three neutrals and replace the teal with... pink? or peach? I'm sure there are other accents that would be perfect with the three neutrals. Hmm...

If's finally getting cool where THIS heroine lives, so she was happy to grab a couple of turtlenecks and a warm dress!

This heroine is keeping up - somewhat - with her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe. As with so many other among our friends and their wardrobes, this one is going to fall short when we get to the winter holidays. But there are no rules...

This wardrobe is relatively well balanced; when it comes to putting ... View the Post

October 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #4: Sun, Water Maine by Georgia O’Keeffe

October 6, 2025

Georgia O'Keeffe. So much talent in one small woman...

Today's heroine has a wardrobe that's quite out of balance, with many more navy and green garments than beige. But there's no requirement that these things be exactly equal, or even close!

Her wardrobe additions fit neatly into her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe; I wonder if any of our heroines will finish the year with a perfect wardrobe that fits the template. I suspect not...

I don't see this list being perfectly filled by January...

Our heroine has a relatively small assortment of beige clothes - if she has everything that she needs, artificial rules and policies like having equal numbers of beige and blue can be ignored!

Technically, this ... View the Post

October 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #3: Of by Elizabeth Magill

October 3, 2025

This painting has all kinds of potential. Is that background color maybe navy-ish? Is there gold around the edges? (yes) As with pretty much any painting worth it's salt, this one is worth studying at some length...

As with our other heroines - so far - this most disciplined of women is trying to purchase items from her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe list. Happily, she found dresses that are VERY similar, except for very different fabrics! The ponte knit feels dressy to me, while the corduroy is going to be rather relaxed. If you love the cut of a garment, don't hesitate to make it a signature.

Here's another heroine who is making quite neat progress on her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe, but who is moving into the end ... View the Post

October 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #2: The Swan No. 24 by Hilma Af Klint

October 2, 2025

Here's a work of art that's more than worth of a few moments of contemplation. It's a bit weird, yes, and enigmatic, and just not quite like anything else you'll ever see! Except, of course, for other of her works. She's worth our attention...

Our heroine is preparing for cold weather! She went into this month's purchases with the goal of sticking to her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe list, but then realized that she didn't have a simple black cashmere sweater...

This is a garment that's right up there with the solid neutral long-sleeved tee shirt, in that it's amazingly versatile and probably belongs in most wardrobes. So the plan will be set aside for this one garment, and a useful choice will be ... View the Post

October 2025 Six Paintings – 12 Months #1: Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay

October 1, 2025

I can't believe it's October - we're still wearing summer clothes in Chicago! But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't prepare for the weather changes...

Let's pause for just a moment and admire this painting. I'm concerned that in our pursuit of lovely wardrobes, we might lose sight of the beauty of art.

This month, our heroine had two goals. Well, her primary and probably ONLY goal here is to purchase things that are both lovely and useful for her wardrobe! But she also wanted to pay attention to her Weekly Timeless Wardrobe table to try to purchase things that were "expected" to be in her wardrobe. Secondly, she wanted to try to even up the color balance in her wardrobe between the browns and the blues! Sounds ... View the Post