Styling a Bird Cardigan in Winter for SIA Winter on the Marsh

Salazar at 14 Shades of Grey is the curator for this round of Style Imitating Art (SIA), and she selected the painting "Winter on the Marsh" by contemporary British artist Dee Nickerson. She chose this artwork because of the winter scene and the primitivist style of the painting. The scene reminds me so strongly of a winter on the Norfolk marshes...which, let me be clear, I have never seen! But reading the 15 books in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths, which is set in that area, makes me feel like I have. I was not at all surprised to learn from Shelbee's post that the painter is from Norfolk!

Source: https://14shadesofgrey.wordpress.com/

Of course I immediately latched onto the birds flying against the blue sky as the most important aspect of this painting to interpret, and my trusty navy bird cardigan was the perfect way to do this. I also have many bird scarves that would work, but I liked (1) that the navy blue background was reminiscent of the blue sky and (2) that the cardigan has a stronger bird presence, covering more of the outfit, than a scarf would.

I leaned into the dark blue color of the two parents' coats for my outfit, pairing the cardigan with dark wash jeans to create an outer column/"suit" in navy. This was close as I was going to get to their look without wearing a coat myself (and I was definitely not feeling like going out into the unseasonably cold gloomy grey day to take a photo!). I wore a navy and white striped T (the same one as in my last SIA look, as it happens) under the cardigan to represent the blue and white "stripes" of sky, snow, and marsh in the upper half of the painting. This makes a nice, low-key print mix, which is subtly emphasized by rolling the sleeves of the t-shirt over the cardigan to make a striped cuff effect.

OOTD 12/16/25

Quite rightly, the people walking along the winter marsh are wearing boots, but I just can't get enough of pairing these navy suede loafers with the blue tassels with my bird cardigan. The cardigan has blue vines/stems against the navy background that feels like a made-to-order match to my loafers.

I was inspired by the boy at the right side of the painting to add a red scarf to my look for a fun pop of color. I wore the scarf fairly high around my neck for warmth in the morning, using method #3 from this post - a Lover's Knot/Pretzel Knot tie, but as my apartment warmed up a bit later on, I loosened it...which is one of the major reasons I prefer a scarf to a turtleneck!

My all-DIY daily bracelet stack was created around the middle chunky paper tube beads that I call my "beer can beads" because of their size/shape and the silver around the two ends. A stack made from 5 bracelets with 8mm beads is my sweet spot for this size of bead; I typically wear about 7 bracelets when the beads are 6mm. (Sorry, no page to bead images for this set, which was one of early experiments in paper-bead making.) In this context, the opaque white glass beads remind me of snowballs...which obviously the kids in the painting would be forming and throwing, right? {stretch bracelet tutorial} {bicone paper bead tutorial} {tube paper bead tutorial}

To bring an explicitly "winter" element to the outfit, I wore a pair of DIY simple stack earrings with large twisted navy beads (I chose acrylic/plastic beads because they're so light), red glass beads, and silver snowflake beads. (See earring design #3 in this post for more examples of this style of earring.)

Now for my favorite part of the SIA post: our Rabbit Imitating Art choice...the last one for 2025! (If you saw my 2025 Rabbits Improving Art and Making History wrap-up post last week, you got a sneak peak of today's rabbit in the group photo. And if you haven't seen that post, it's not too late!)

It was actually a bit challenging to recruit a domestic rabbit for the role this time because (1) that snow is cold and wet, (2) there are four big dogs in the painting, and (3) I can't guarantee that none of those birds are predatory. But this brave dark grey-blue mini lop rabbit with a snuggly dewlap at her neck volunteered to join the artwork...with conditions.

Condition #1: She demanded that I sweeten the deal with an impressively well-thought-out balance of high-calorie fruits and veggies, arguing that she would expend a lot of energy from shivering in the cold painting and would need extra calories on the other side of this process to recover. This was about 3 times the amount of my typical Rabbit Improving Art gift basket, but she also made a convincing argument in favor of hazard pay.

Condition #2: She required that the humans in the artwork help hide and camouflage her from the dogs and birds. The parents were covered in long dark blue-grey coats that she could blend in with or, in a pinch, hide underneath. Two kids in the front were instructed to distract the dogs as much as possible (and yes, snowballs were employed as needed). And the two kids in the back flanked the rabbit and provided security from non-dog threats.

Condition #3: The fourth dog trailing the pack, the elder of the group, had to be entirely removed from the painting, which he did willingly because he found the other three dogs annoyingly young and energetic and would rather be curled up asleep in front of a fire in another painting anyway.

With this plan in place, our intrepid bunny entered the winter scene. Everything went just fine, but the boy with the red scarf was so enamored of the rabbit that he kept his attention on her more than the possibility of threats in the area. Luckily his sister was a major badass who had the ability to stay vigilant for long periods and, as usual, she covered for him...a recurring theme in their relationship. But that's a story for another day.

Artwork "improved" with rabbit

Thanks for joining me today for this Style Imitating Art + Rabbit Imitating (and Improving) Art post!

To see other outfit interpretations of this artwork, check out the review on 14 Shades of Grey.

Would you like to take a winter walk on the marsh...or are you more like the dog that would prefer to be asleep in front of a fire? What aspects of this painting would you emphasize in your sartorial interpretation? Do you prefer scarves or turtlenecks in the winter more...or both...or neither?

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