Start with Art Archives - Page 2 of 57

February 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

February 2, 2026

Time flies, doesn't it? Although January did sometimes seem to be a decade-long winter challenge...

But let's think of art! I particularly love this painting, and I can't put my finger on why. I think that's just fine - do you have to be able to explain your passions and dislikes?

The balance of color here could be different, but I think we're going to have a good time with these three strong neutrals and two unexpected accent colors:

At the end of January, our heroine had maybe the world's most organized and versatile core wardrobe. You could toss literally any accent color into this eight-piece capsule wardrobe and have a lot of options. It's not always fascinating to start with these neutral pieces, ... View the Post

Green Always Feels Fresh: Start With Art – In Northern Mists by Erik Werenskiold

January 30, 2026

One last visit with our traveling heroine, and the print that she uses to inspire her wardrobe:

Her color palette focused on the pastel colors in the sky, although she could easily include both black, white (stars!) and a soft grey in this palette:

They're not at all sure that the Northern Lights are still a possibility, but they do know that there are flowers starting to sprout, and leaves just beginning to show... (use your imaginations, all of us still in single-degree cold!)

So her accent color is green, and her theme is leaves!

As a reminder, this is the travel capsule wardrobe template that she's using to choose her six garments for each trip:

She knows full well that spring can ... View the Post

The Impact of a New Accent Color: Start With Art – In Northern Mists by Erik Werenskiold

January 28, 2026

Monday's very pink wardrobe was a success - except there was cloud cover the ENTIRE weekend she was with her friend.

So they're going to try again...

Remember, this is the illustration upon which we're basing all of this week's travel capsule wardrobes:

Our heroine has a denim-focused wardrobe, with three pastel accent colors:

They're trying to encourage clearer skies, so our heroine is focusing on yellow, and sunny earrings!

As a reminder, this is the Six-Pack Plan that she's going to try to select for her second weekend with her new friend:

She's not trying to convince her friend that she has an endlessly large wardrobe, so she packs a lot of the same clothing as before. People who ... View the Post

Thinking About Six-Packs: Start With Art – In Northern Mists by Erik Werenskiold

January 26, 2026

Just a quick idea - if you want to save both electricity and water (not necessarily for you personally, but for the world), when you're searching for something on the Internet, type -ai at the end of your search. Voila, NO Artificial Intelligence responses!

I've been thinking a lot about the logic of what actually goes into a Six-Pack travel capsule wardrobe. So I'm going to start with this most excellent illustration, and conjure up three travel capsule wardrobes this week...

Honestly, could this be more timely? So many people in the Northern Hemisphere have been able to see the Northern Lights for the first time in their lives. Bless the overactive solar storms, eh?

To me, this print just looked like ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Common Shelduck by Dennis A. Jones

January 14, 2026

Ten years ago, her friends invited her for the weekend. A bit of bird-watching, sitting on the veranda... Just a relaxing time in a warm climate with people she loves...

After spending so much time admiring these birds, she decided to take her wardrobe very much in this direction - with the addition of the snappy red accent!

Well, her relationship with birds has taken on a whole new meaning! First thing - when she left her morally bankrupt corporate job, she almost immediately found a position helping coordinate worldwide bird censuses.

It requires both a knowledge of data base administration, and bird species! Who ever knew that SQL and birds could co-exist?

She does get to travel from time to ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Spirit of Autumn by Albert Pinkham Ryder

January 12, 2026

She's a professional listener...

She doesn't want to be invisible - that would be creepy! But she does want to appear warm, unobtrusive and comfortable. Her clients will speak more freely if she doesn't look as if she's going to rip off their head...

So she chose this most calm and reflective of paintings, and an assortment of colors from brown to bone, with accents of rust and a pretty greenish-blue that matches her eyes:

She started building her new work wardrobe with the most classic of ivory and brown, but in soft textures of cabled cashmere and corduroy:

She knows that finding her favorite green is going to be difficult, so she has to jump on anything she finds that suits. And although the ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Ruffled Autumn Clouds by Emile Nolde

January 9, 2026

She doesn't have to wear a uniform anymore! She didn't really mind - it's a good job - but it does get tiring to wear Oxford grey, pale pink and pale yellow ALL THE TIME.

Not to mention that everyone on the street knows where she works...

But she's been promoted to back-office support and auditing, and she can wear pretty much whatever she wants! And this is where she's going to focus:

She really wants to have navy as her wardrobe core; she's noticed that ALL of the top executives wear navy a lot. Since she's pretty ambitious, she figures that she may as well accustom herself to owning and loving classic navy.

But she's going to give herself the choice of four accent colors! One for each season - more or ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Winter Cottonwoods by Georgia O’Keeffe

January 7, 2026

A surprise painting that I snuck in on everyone - almost including myself!

But I always want to include the wardrobe visions of those among us who have a desire for their wardrobe to remain in the background - subtle, nuanced, and quiet...

Her color palette might change in proportion - she's feeling like she may want more grey, and ease back on the gold/yellow. These things are a work in progress, NOT a rule!

She's know what career she wanted ever since she was a small child, and watched people digging up her favorite flowers from her front yard - what's wrong with dandelions?

And she's been fully focused on her desire to redeem the reputation of native plants for pretty much her entire life; her ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Lonely Erika Giovanna Klien

January 5 2026

Our second heroine also has a black base to her wardrobe, along with denim blue and bone (thanks to whomever pointed out that I'd complete SKIPPED the beautiful bluish grey...):

Our heroine is a graphic artist; her specialty is working with designs that incorporate multiple typefaces. She's the absolute master (mistress?) of mixing serif and sans-serif fonts! And it's not as easy as one might think; persuading clients that she's right about things can be difficult. Therefore, she tends to dress in a pretty timeless and neutral fashion, so that clients will concentrate on what she shows to them, and not on her.

But she does plan to include both turquoise and bright Kelly green in her wardrobe, in moderate ... View the Post

January 2026 – Building a Wardrobe Based on Saints Genevieve and Apollonia by Lucas Cranach the Elder

January 2, 2026

Happy Happy Happy New Year to all of us! We deserve it, I'd say!

Let's wallow in the beauty of our first painting, and get to know our first heroine:

This heroine worked on the restoration of Notre Dame, in Paris. She specializes in the symbolism of the small decorative carvings found at the tops of pillars, in the wee niches in arches - all sorts of places in Gothic architecture were ornamented, because it was considered a form of worship.

And while she was well-known in her specialty area, working on such a high-profile project made her "small famous." Enough so that she travels a lot now, giving lectures at colleges and universities EVERYWHERE.

These are her colors:

Her favorite personal ... View the Post

Let’s Evaluate the Last 4 2025 Wardrobes

December 31, 2025

This seems a fitting way to finish up our year here together, doesn't it?

I love this painting; I always fear that I'm going to be absolutely sick of the six paintings by the end of the year, but it's never happened. Yet. Good art has legs...

One thing I noticed as I was sorting out the contents of these four wardrobes: If you start with a plan, and proceed in a pretty orderly manner (like we did this year, when we added four garments and three accessories each month, and each group of 4 garments included a "bottom"), you're probably going to end up with a great wardrobe.

There were very few glaring omissions in these - did you miss something that you thought should be included?

One of the real ... View the Post

Let’s Evaluate a Pair of Wardrobes!

December 26, 2025

Happy St. Stephen's Day!

Let's take a look at two of the wardrobes that we worked on this year, to see what we might learn, or what might be added to the wardrobes to make them work better for our heroines.

Bear in mind that THE ONLY REASON to buy clothes is because you need them, and because you're going to wear them a lot. Desire isn't sufficient. Admiration certainly isn't sufficient. Let's get ourselves reacquainted with the true meaning of need.

And let's all try to remember what we felt BEFORE we owned a certain item, and the longing that we felt for that item. if you can recreate that feeling of eagerness to own something every time you pull it out of your closet, your might get more joy out of your ... View the Post