Red-Green & Blue-Yellow/Colors you can't see

Here is a very interesting article about so called "forbidden" colors from Life's Little Mysteries.

At the end of the article are some more interesting links especially tracking an artist who is on acid.

Tea and pastry tour of Portland

Wednesday my daughter and brother and I went on a tour of bakeries and a wonderful tea store. I did some on line research and marked up the map and off we went.

We met at the Pearl bakery at 8th and Couch at 9 AM. They only had one macaron in the case and wouldn't have others until later in the day so I didn't test them yet. Part of the purpose of this tour was to research the best macaron in Portland. Well, someone has to do it! We walked to Nuvrei bakery at 10th and Flanders and bought macarons to take with us to test later. Then on over to 23rd avenue for the macarons at Moonstruck chocolates. They didn't have any chocolate ones but we found very heavily salted caramel flavor as well as pistachio and mocha. Next to Two Tarts bakery at 23rd and Kearney where they had a poppy seed macaron and would have more flavors in the afternoon. Their macarons were the smallest ones we found.

Then we went to Steven Smith Teamaker at 1626 NW Thurman where they are open Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. This was the highlight of our tour. We had two tea tastings of four flights each so we tasted eight teas. I bought three of them. We brought our cookies from Two Tarts with us to eat with the tea although I think they provide some kind of a plain cookie too. Be sure to look at their blog. It was great fun and since the tea is made perfectly we really had the best of the flavors.

So shortly it would be time to think about lunch and we decided to move over to the east side of town. We really weren't hungry but something savory was sounding good by this time. We traveled on some streets I'm sure I've never been on and I've lived in the Portland area for a very long time. It was so helpful to have my daughter's iPhone with the map app. I see an iPhone in my future.

We made a quick stop at Little T Baker at 26th and SE Division. It was busy and no macarons but it looks like a good bakery and good place for lunch. It was one of the top three bakeries for 2011. The other two are Ken's Bakery and The Pearl.

Lunch was at Petite Provence near 48th and Division. They were very busy and again no macarons. So we were forced to take home our desserts to eat later. The meal was very good and they have a large selection of pastries of various kinds.

I had energy for one more place and we went to the Jade Bistro and Teahouse at 7912 SE 13th in Sellwood. It looks like a good place for lunch too. Their prices for macarons were the best at $1.25 each. They were rated #1 for macarons on Yelp. The decor was very nice and even after the regular lunch hour they were very busy.

I know this is an art focused blog and I am returning to painting soon since I'm recovering from an earlier knee surgery. The only problem is I still don't know my limits or where to draw the line on activities. The only way to find out is to push a little and see what happens. So Wednesday's driving and walking was another good test of my stamina. I have a ways to go yet.

Final score for the best macarons in Portland is a tie between Nuvrei and Moonstruck. I've also had the macarons at Ken's Bakery and Pix and they are no contest compared to the above two places.

Art show at Aurora Gallery/Art Walk

Friday night May 4th at the Aurora Gallery in Vancouver WA our critique group )PDX-WAM.com) or Portland Women in Abstract Media, had a wonderful show which is up through May 28th. The turn out was very good and the streets and galleries were jumping with activity.

The art was well lighted and the gallery owner did the hanging which is always a bonus. Even though we might have seen all the paintings previously it is always a delight to see them hanging together as a group in a gallery setting. Good times!

We had a meeting before the reception and then went to the gallery. Most of us visited the other galleries in Vancouver which are all within walking distance.

I have photos of everyone standing by some of their paintings except I missed Katherine!

Katherine Van Schoohoven
Jan Heigh
Ann Fullerton
Nikki Dilbeck
Marge Rood
Collin Murphy
Bonnie Garrett