Six Paintings - 12 Months Archives

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

July 13, 2026

Let's pause for a moment and admire the amazing details in this painting - the marbled, denim-colored areas, the subtle letters that spell out "einsam", the little flashes of green and blue. It all looks simple at first, but you and I both know that it's a lot harder than it seems:

Halfway through the year, our heroine the text design specialist had this wardrobe. I love that we can clearly see her fondness for button-front shirt and tee shirts. All of our wardrobes should reflect our strong preferences!

These are her accessories, coming into July. The green shoes keep catching my eye, in a good way:

As with so many of us, our heroine has cool clothes in mind this month. Finding the tote bag was a ... View the Post

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

July 10, 2026

Our researcher of all things Gothic architectural detail is in Paris. Melting. Loving her small borrowed apartment with air conditioning...

First up, let's savor her signature work of art - the painting from which she draws her color palette, and the serene grace that she tries to emulate in her life:

some day I'm going to be a pub quiz in which they hold up photographs of paintings and ask "who's the artist". I'm going to OWN that pub....

At the end of June, our heroine had this wardrobe. She clearly has some great things to wear in hot weather, which is a good thing!

This was her accessory collection. So bright, so pretty, so useful!

She's looking for another outfit that she can wear in the ... View the Post

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

July 8, 2026

Our heroine is spending this month, and part of next month, hanging out at a small rural college in Vermont, where fervent bird-counting is underway! Happily, her responsibility is tallying numbers, and NOT sitting out in a concealed shelter for hours and hours...

She takes her inspiration, and finds her discipline, in this photograph:

Coming into the month of July, this was our heroine's 28-piece wardrobe. She didn't bring all of this with her to Vermont...

Neither did she bring all of her accessories. I could easily justify ONE pair of boots for any trip at any time, but two pairs of boots, in July, in North America?

This month's wardrobe additions reflect our heroine's rural, hot ... View the Post

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

July 6, 2026

I'm home from Paris. Well, I'm actually writing this the day BEFORE I leave, so I'm assuming that everything went swimmingly...

Let's revisit our heroine who spends her work time listening to others. She draws her personal style inspiration from this painting:

She finished the first half of the calendar year with these 28 pieces of clothing as her work wardrobe. Most of us have a ton more than this, but I think we might be able to agree that this is pretty sufficient:

If you get bored with the clothes (although clothes maybe shouldn't be a big source of entertainment!), the accessories can liven things up a bit:

When our heroine was looking for additions to her wardrobe, she was thinking of adding ... View the Post

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

July 3, 2026

Our heroine, the ambitious bank employee, takes her wardrobe inspiration from this beautiful work:

At the end of June, her wardrobe included 28 garments:

And this snappy assortment of accessories. Our heroine is beginning to really understand the joy of wearing scarves...

This month, she's finally buying a suit! It's linen, so she understands that it's for mostly warmer weather, but she's absolutely NOT opposed to buying a second suit for cold weather. Men wear suits every day...

And yes, she went nuts on the scarf. Finding something that looked just right with her newest accent - the Baltic teal - wasn't easy. But the scarf will still be around long after she's the CEO of the entire bank holding ... View the Post

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

July 1, 2026

While many of us are struggling with the lack of brightness and contrast in this wardrobe, I think most of us at least really admire this painting:

At the end of June, our heroine the landscape designer had this capsule wardrobe - 28 garments:

And these are her accessories. While the clothes are quite simple, her accessories are a bit ore interesting. Yes, she does indeed have the exactly same tote bag in two colors! And her scarves are deliciously lovely...

Our heroine found some casual things that will be useful for when she's meeting clients outdoors. She doesn't do this as often as she had once believed she would - a couple of visits to the site seem to be sufficient for her part of the work. But ... View the Post

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

June 12, 2026

Our heroine the landscape architect is using this soft, subtle painting as the focus and inspiration for her wardrobe:

At the end of May, she had 24 pieces in her wardrobe. Even though grey just doesn't seem like it should fit in here, I think it's going to be okay. Time will tell, eh?

Her accessories are wonderful - her scarves seem to have been designed just for her:

This month, our heroine needs tee shirts! She doesn't spend as much time outdoors in warm weather as we might expect; her clients don't like to be out in the heat... Snowflakes!

But she still has to dress for warmer weather...

When she takes a look at her 28-piece wardrobe template, she's pretty pleased:

But it's ... View the Post

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

June 10, 2026

Lonely indeed! Thanks to a brilliant reader, we all know that the German word "einsam" is (not tremendously well) hidden in this painting. The Vivienne Files community is the best!

Our heroine is a pro with typefaces, fonts, and constructing documents with a combination of legibility and creativity. Sounds perfect - clear, but fun!

Sort of like her wardrobe at the end of May:

While her garments are all simple and classic (albeit with some snappy color), her accessories are where things get interesting. It's easy for all of us to wear similar clothes, so long as we have accessories to put our personal touch on things...

This month, our heroine's shopping was a bit of this and a bit of that!

She ... View the Post

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

June 8, 2026

So what is our glamorous Gothic researcher up to?

Let's enjoy her favorite painting for a moment; it's easy to just skip right past the paintings to get to the wardrobes, and that's a pity. I take AGES to choose these paintings, and they all have something to offer us each time we look again...

At the end of May, our heroine had a 24-piece capsule wardrobe that definitely leans toward the dressy! But she also has a pair of jeans, so she's not entirely a princess... If I had the joy of a trip for weeks and weeks, to all kinds of different weather conditions, I would try to pack something along these lines:

Her accessories at the end of May are pretty nice...

Although this particular heroine marches to ... View the Post

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

June 5, 2026

Our bird-data expert is back, and she has travel plans...

Remember, she takes her wardrobe inspiration from this handsome guy:

At the end of May, our heroine had a pretty lovely 24-piece wardrobe:

And her accessories were pretty nifty too! I have to share with you that I've started loving these narrow silk scarves; enough time has passed since we HAD TO WEAR THEM in the office, with our white shirts, dark suits and sensible pumps...

Later in June, our heroine will be leaving for six weeks on a college campus in VERY rural New England. The campus is going to be completely cleared of anybody except essential support staff (cafeteria workers are ESSENTIAL...) and a band of avian ... View the Post

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

June 3, 2026

Let's see how our "professional listener" is doing! For what it's worth, I was picturing this woman as a psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor or such...

Her inspiration art:

She REALLY doesn't care if any of her clients or co-workers remember what she wears; she's much more concerned in helping people... But she does want to look nice, and she likes to think that her choice of colors gives her a warm and calm image.

And she has russet hair and aqua eyes...

At the end of May, her wardrobe looked like this:

And these are her accessories, so far:

Our heroine is trying quite hard to stick to her wardrobe template. Last month, she bought both pants AND a dress, which left her with "template ... View the Post

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

June 1, 2026

I believe that Summer has arrived!

watch, it will snow tomorrow...

Although this painting is of clouds later in the year, I could certainly pretend that the beautiful green landscape is mid-summer. Those are greens vivid enough for Ireland!

At the end of May, our heroine had this wardrobe, shown in two images - one for clothes and one for accessories.

It's well worth looking at these images for a minute, because there is a world full of people who have this much clothing OR LESS. Well-chosen, a small wardrobe can be enough. I know nobody who deliberately tries to keep their wardrobe small, but there could be good reasons...

I could manage with a small number of clothes, so long as I had lots of ... View the Post