Start with Art Archives - Page 2 of 36

Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: Waterfall by Morris Graves

January 11, 2023

Do you think maybe I'm drawn to green because I was sick, and green feels like renewal? Hmm...

Not Blending In... She's going to the conference too. Not presenting, but she will be attentively listening, and taking notes, and learning...

She doesn't know for certain, but she thinks it possible that someone else from her corporation will be there. They probably don't know her, and she certainly doesn't know them!

Frankly, it doesn't matter. She's not attending this conference to meet and greet, or to grab some handle on some higher rung of the professional ladder.

She's just there to learn, and to meet interesting people. They don't have to be positioned to help her advance - she can ... View the Post

Build a Travel Capsule Wardrobe by Starting with Art: The Mountain Lake by Dorrit Black

January 4, 2023

Flexible...

After watching the travel chaos over the Christmas holiday, she decided that she was going to be flexible with her plans...

If her plane doesn't depart in time to get her to her destination for dinner, she's going to go back into the city and take the train...

If she can't get the train for some reason, (it could be full!), or if it doesn't run at all, THEN she's going to go over to the docks and catch a ferry across the Sea...

All she wants is a long weekend away - she's not terribly choosy about exactly WHERE she goes. There are a lot of lovely destinations within an hour or 2 of where she lives!

She can carry her bag wherever she needs to go - she has NO intentions of checking ... View the Post

Six Paintings, 12 Months – January 2023

January 2, 2023

Well THAT was weird to type...

Our six heroines all decided that they wanted to go shopping to augment the TWO garments with which they started our year-long adventure.

If you have something specific in mind that you want to buy, this is a difficult time of year to shop; lots of stores are sold out of all of the really nice things, and much of what's left is only available in a limited number of sizes.

But our heroines know that places like L.L.Bean will ALWAYS have a good assortment of timeless, classic garments. When you have very few clothes, buying trendy things is silly!

Let's visit our heroines and see what's up!

First up she thought that a black jacket would make sense. Being the ... View the Post

Six Paintings, 12 Months – a 2023 Preview!

December 23, 2022

It's like an early Christmas gift! And if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's just a gift, full stop.

This was quite a bit harder than choosing 6 scarves; there's something to be said in defense of any painting, so rejecting any of them was difficult...

Let's get started!

I couldn't resist this! Black and white with pink and purple, and just enough blue to include denim in the wardrobe...

Flash back to the wardrobe from when we first saw this painting.

I'm starting each of our heroines with some simple essentials:

Yes, we looked at this painting just recently...

But for those of us clamoring for brown, this is worth looking at some more!

Her basics are pretty lovely, ... View the Post

Start with Art: A Peasant Woman by Edgar Degas

November 30, 2022

Why yes, it suits her to a T...

The Confectionary Rep...

She goes to all of those gigantic food conferences - she's responsible for over a dozen of the booths that showcase small chocolate and caramel makers...

She doesn't have to actually be IN the booths - she hires lovely staff for that! But she does get to wander around, offering samples to people, and chatting with customers who seem to be legitimately interested...

She loves dressing in "chocolate and caramel" colors, with a touch of ivory whipped cream!

One company has mentioned that they might started making chocolate-covered cherries!

She sees a beautiful red sweater in her future...

love,

Janice

p.s. ... View the Post

Start with Art: Le Grand Bois by Auguste Morisot

November 18, 2022

This is where she's going, more or less...

1/4 Mile off the blacktop road... You know when these are the directions, you're going to be off the beaten track!

And that's what she needs - she has writers' block...

Normally, she would go sit in a café and people-watch, but this time she's going to look inside for inspiration, rather than outside.

She's only going for a couple of days. She's got enough coffee and food for breakfast, and maybe lunch. She WILL go into town for dinner...

But she will have no internet connection. No Wi-Fi, no streaming video, no texting... the cabin has a landline, and a television that gets 3 network channels.

Quiet, dark, and trees...

She's a ... View the Post

Start with Art: A Winter’s Tale by K. Neil Swanson

November 11, 2022

Wouldn't this make a wonderful scarf?

And for those of us who love navy, this is a beautiful inspiration!

Do You Know Someone Like This? Her Christmas tree is decorated with birds. She has bird feeders outside her windows. She just loves birds - she doesn't have to explain this to anybody!

And so when she's assembling a wardrobe for cool weather - especially for a trip! - she turns to her favorites animals for inspiration.

She starts with her essentials:

Her chosen inspiration has a wide variety of possible accents, but these are what she's chosen for this particular wardrobe:

She could probably pull together an outfit that clashes a bit, but generally speaking this is a "Whatever's ... View the Post

Start with Art: #96 by Marcel Rozek

October 26, 2022

Eloping...

Everyone assumes that they're already married - and that they've been married for years!

On Tuesday, they decided to make it legal, for so many reasons...

They dashed over to the Justice of the Peace in the middle of the afternoon, when they got a phone call that they could sneak in during a gap in the schedule. They went dressed in their "work at home" clothes!

And now, they're going to sneak off for a long weekend together!

They're going to their favorite city, for a few days of museums, concerts and dinners. Nothing over the top, but lovely and romantic!

She's never packed for a last-minute honeymoon before - but she things this will work just fine!

How can she ... View the Post

Start with Art: Version 2 Man in a Café by Juan Gris

October 21, 2022

Our heroine from Wednesday is back on the road, with a rather different color palette!

This trip is going to be both more casual AND more dressy - so our heroine is including both jeans and sequins!

note that she's packing exactly the same number of everything...

There's that one dinner (concert, opera?) that gives her permission to break out the really dressy top...

She loves the way this looks - it's just like her last travel capsule wardrobe, but it's NOTHING like it, at the same time. It's kind of magic...

She has lots of ways to wear these pieces too - it's built into her system:

Imagine what she could do if she packed BOTH of these for a trip!

do you think that this is a ... View the Post

Start with Art: Man in a Café by Juan Gris

October 19, 2022

She Prefers Neutrals...

She likes to play with the proportions - sometimes her coat is the darkest color, sometimes the lightest. And sometimes it's the color in the middle!

And when you wear neutrals, you can have other interesting signatures, like two-toned shoes, or corduroy pants...

They're planning a few trips this autumn and winter...

For this first one, in the truest heart of autumn, she has chosen to emphasize the brown in her wardrobe:

This is a small travel wardrobe - a Six-Pack... but she can get a lot of mileage from it:

She's quite sure that she will be packing a grey, denim blue and black wardrobe soon...

love,

Janice

p.s. Six years ago, ... View the Post

Start with Art: Revisiting Portraits Theatraux by Natalia Goncharova

September 19, 2022

Remember this heroine? She was going away EVERY weekend, to visit friends who have a summer house. She was trying pretty hard not to let on to her co-workers that she was wearing the same outfit every Friday and Monday...

I've never had a co-worker who would notice such a thing! Except for Belovedest, of course...

As our heroine start to plan her autumn travel wardrobe, she realizes that she might have to be sort of... flexible... with her colors!

This is a smart thing to remember - the fashion police are NOT going to come after you because you've decided that moss green is easier to find in the autumn than mint!

So every Friday, our heroine will be wearing this; eventually she might have gloves, or ... View the Post

Start With Art: Winter Solstice by Dame Barbara Hepworth

August 24, 2022

It seems a bit premature to be looking at art entitled Winter Solstice, but our heroine loves pastels!

She doesn't much care what anybody else wears - she's not interested in dark colors! She feels beautiful in pink, and lovely in sky blue...

The core of her wardrobe for cooler weather is gray, with a bit of denim and chambray tossed in for practicality:

please note - everybody's "Common Wardrobe" will be different - what I'm looking for are the core, neutral garments that form the base for the more expressive and statement garments and accessories in our wardrobes.

On those days, our heroine knows that she doesn't have to look any farther than these 9 pieces to get her dressed and out the ... View the Post