Start with Art Archives

Start with Art: The Red Maple at Lake George by Georgia O’Keeffe

July 11, 2022

The Best Laid Plans... She was planning to spend the autumn photographing leaves, and hiking, and enjoying the brisk air...

But instead, she's going to be touring with a political candidate whom she supports. It's a long story!

She doesn't want to pack much; she frankly doesn't want to think about clothing at all once she closes her suitcase. She's going to have quite enough on her mind!

So she's thinking that she will have room to pack 10 garments in her medium suitcase... Maybe a "Whatever's Clean 13" Wardrobe is what she needs, eh?

Realistically, she might be able to stop at home from time to time, but she wants to be as self-sufficient as possible when they're driving from small town to ... View the Post

Start with Art: Passenger by Sean Scully

July 8, 2022

As soon as she saw the painting, so many things became clearer...

It includes all of her favorite colors, but it's the title that really grabs her...

This is what she wants - after two and a half years of staying home and being careful - she wants to be a passenger!

And so she's leaving. As soon as the summer's over, she's going to buy a train pass and just GO...

She will choose destinations based on things like sporting events, or art exhibits, or other museum-type stuff... or maybe weather. Or something else!

She starts to plan her foolproof wardrobe now; anticipation is a big part of the travel fun, for her:

She loves the idea of a wardrobe based in black, and punctuated with bright colors. ... View the Post

Start with Art: The Golden Stairs by Sir Edward Coley Burney-Jones

June 24, 2022

Yes, you saw this painting a long time ago! That heroine was also traveling for a family celebration...

Let's take a close-up look at a bunch of these lovely ladies, and enjoy the color palette...

Our heroine is off for a quick weekend trip to a family wedding! She's taking Friday off of work, so that she will arrive early in the afternoon - certainly early enough for lunch with relatives, and possibly early enough for a quick nap:

Because the partying starts tonight, with the rehearsal and the following dinner, and then of course the wedding on Saturday! By Sunday, she just needs to drag herself to brunch before they run out of coffee, and then sleep on the train on the way home!

She wants to ... View the Post

Start with Art: Pink Gladiolus by Jane Peterson

June 15, 2022

Six Days a Month They moved WAY out of the city back in early 2020; if they didn't have to go into the office, it made sense to move someplace more remote... Much safer, back then...

But now, they're telling her that she needs to come into the office six days each month. WHO is going to be keeping track of this, one might wonder.

She doesn't HAVE office clothes, now. What she used to wear doesn't fit, and the way she dresses now on a regular basis will NOT cut it; life on a farm is NOT life at a desk!

So she's going to create the world's smallest work wardrobe (well, close!), based on a painting of her favorite flowers.

She starts with her most serious outfit - the sweater-blazer tends to make ... View the Post

Start with Art: Windows Open Simultaneously by Robert Delaunay

June 6, 2022

Iceland, and Packing in a Different Way

She knows her color palette, she KNOWS she's going somewhere relatively cool, and she knows what she wants to wear on the plane...

Is that enough?

She understands that she's going to be wearing her travel outfit for quite a while on her actual travel day, and she plans to wear all 3 garments frequently while she's there...

So she thinks... what additional garment - just ONE thing - would she bring with her for a cool place and lots of sightseeing?

There's a BIG advantage to packing this way - she remembers immediately that she wants to bring her labradorite earrings, so she grabs them and puts them in her little jewelry bag. And she digs her green socks out ... View the Post

It’s Like Our Own Private Art Gallery!

June 3, 2022

How many paintings do you suppose we've looked at here on The Vivienne Files?

I don't have any idea!

But my lovely friends in Canada (yes, Alison the bracelet goddess!) have pulled together a page for us from which we can browse ALL of The Vivienne Files Start with Art posts...

Not by title, or artist. BY IMAGE!!! For me, it's like wandering through a museum of all of my favorite paintings. (of course, I picked all of them!)

The timing couldn't be better - I'm having a fibromyalgia flare, which makes me tired, sore, and dumb as a stump! So browse away, and I will be back on Monday...

love,

Janice

p.s. Seven years ago, a travel capsule wardrobe in black, white and yellow focused on ... View the Post

Adding Accessories to a Wardrobe: Start with Art – Sunlight on the Road, Pontoise by Pissarro

May 30, 2022

This is the painting that inspired our heroine:

And this is the wardrobe that she assembled for the upcoming summer months; she lives in a nice mild climate...

Of course she needs accessories! Most women will at least want some shoes, and I suspect that most of us also like a couple of pieces of jewelry, a bag, and possibly a scarf or two...

But there are no rules - if you really AREN'T a jewelry person, or a scarf person, don't force yourself to be someone you're not. There's nothing at all elegant or beautiful about being untrue to yourself!

For the sake of fun, maybe our heroine is going to use this template as a guideline for her summer accessories:

Where does one start? Our heroine decides ... View the Post

Start with Art: Sunlight on the Road, Pontoise by Camille Pissarro

May 25, 2022

Self-Care

The medication changed her body. She's bigger now. But she's also better!

Now she needs a new wardrobe for the next few months; this is her plan:

She lives in a lovely part of the world, with a VERY temperate climate; it rarely gets below 29 degree F in the winter, and seldom above the mid-70s in the summer! Sounds like heaven to me...

Like all wise women, she start with her dark neutral, in basic but not boring pieces that can be worn and worn and worn...

Lovely light blue - a soft color like the sky full of clouds...

Green pants in the shade she envisioned were hard to find, so she just got another pair of grey pants! Why not...

And green... muted and beautiful...

Our ... View the Post

Start with Art: The Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha

May 4, 2022

Wear Your Colors She always took it to heart - auburn hair, ivory skin, lots of golden freckles...

So when she was invited to her friend's country home for the weekend, packing was easy! These weekends are basically a lot of eating, a lot of laughing, and a LOT of napping...

After dropping by her office for a few hours, she catches the bus; she will have to walk a bit when she arrives, but she will be nice and hungry when she gets there... Dinner is always late on Friday nights!

Many of the friends assembled there will sleep late - although there are always a couple of ambitious people who get up before dawn to go hiking!

Brunch will last for HOURS... followed by naps for most of them. If you're not ... View the Post

Start with a Detail – The Water, Monaco by William John Leech

April 29, 2022

She wasn't sure that she loved the painting, but she saw something in it that REALLY spoke to her...

She's Always Been a Towhead She violated all of those pieces of advice about looking at art, and she got up REALLY CLOSE to the painting...

THIS is what she saw, that called to her:

Her hair was turning from blond white to just plain (amazing!) white. She avoided the sun, as all wise women do. And she embraced the soft, the pale, the subtle muted colors that suited her so well...

if I didn't already have a white summer cardigan...

Beige is the core of her wardrobe - winter, summer, no matter! And light grey wool, in the cool weather...

She's excited to add some light green to her wardrobe! ... View the Post

Revising a Wardrobe Plan: Start with Art – The Water, Monaco by William John Leech

April 27, 2022 Our heroine felt... unsatisfied with her initial wardrobe plan. It was perfectly practical, and many women would have been delighted with having black, beige and pastels available to them... So our heroine went back to her inspiration painting, to try to identify what about it really appeal to her!

She loved the contrast between the trees and the pastels in the water... She wasn't mad about the color of the sand, or pavement, or whatever that mungy greenish beige was supposed to be! ..... Walking to work, she saw a very nicely dressed man, in a navy suit, a light blue shirt, and dark tie... NAVY! Navy and pastels are classic. And then she saw a lovely woman wearing a simple white tee shirt with a navy ... View the Post

Adding Accent Accessories – Start with Art: Vocal Fabric of the Singer Rosa Silber by Paul Klee

April 22, 2022

You know that it's "klee an in clay"? There once was a book by that title that helped us pronounce all sorts of art and music names properly; well worth grabbing if you see it used...

Well, when I started this post, I wasn't at all sure WHEN you would get to see it; they're working on the internet and cable in my building - fifty-some floors of rewiring! Outages and glitches are built into this process; if I am going to miss a date I will post a note from my phone so you know I'm okay!

SO!!! Let's get Wednesday's heroines some accessories!!!

For reference, and for pleasure, let's remember that this is the art from which we started:

Let's go back to our core of 10 pieces of clothing. There's no reason in the ... View the Post