Learning from Art: Accent Colors

Chez nous, we do jigsaw puzzles.  Big scary 1000 piece puzzles, mostly of fine paintings.

While Belovedest attacks the border, I always try to grab pieces that seem to be relatively uncommon, and figure out how I can fit them together. In a 1000 piece puzzle, there might be 30 or 40 pieces that are bright red, for example, in a sea of earth tones...

My mistake - every time - is assuming that there will only be ONE red "area" in the entire picture.  Accent colors ALWAYS appear multiple times...

three areas of red, plus a few flowers thrown in for total confusion

yellow, in an etching of the ocean?  in five separate areas...

bright yellow, in a sea of Renoir blues - again in five places, plus some flowers in the background!

I thought that Kandinsky would be clear-cut, but there are shades of accent red all over the place here...

So what in the name of joyous happiness does this have to do with getting dressed?

Remember how I'm always encouraging you, when you wear an accent color shirt or blouse, to also include earrings, or socks, or some little something in that same color?

Multiple appearances of the accent color just seem to work.  It's balanced, symmetric, internally self-referential.

Throw THAT into conversation this weekend...

love,
Janice