Portland Standouts

There are many but here's two of them.

One of the must-go-to galleries in Portland is The Abacus. They’ve always got more than a few pieces to amuse, stir my imagination and, just generally, slay me with their beauty. (click on the images to embiggen them)

I’ve seen this artist’s bright, whimsical, painted furniture, mirror frames, armoires and such in other galleries. I love them despite the twee text. Visually, they’re inspiring. Yup. Once I finish painting koi ponds, Seuss fish and doodles on all our walls here at home, I’m likely to start in on the furniture.

Sadly, I’ve never caught the artist’s name and my Google-foo seems to be offline this morning. Anybody know his/her name?

Abacus carries Brian Andreas' Story People fun, odd cards and prints. I was absolutely in love with his work until I saw Linda Baker-Cimini’s at a fab. odd little Berkshires gallery this past summer. I’m still wild about Andreas’ drawings, his use of color but Baker-Cimini’s text (and drawings) speak to me more.

Kerry Brooks’ fused glass glazed bowls, plates and tiles totally knocked me over. I could get lost in the the muted brilliance of those glass pools. Naturally, today, I’m wishing that I’d bought a tile or two. Ah well, there's always Etsy.

If I’d the shekels to spare, this steampunk-ish crow would have come home with me. Perhaps I need to paint one or two—maybe our living room needs a few?

And, of course, who doesn't need glittering metallic piglets in their home?

Before the end of our 2015 Just Us Extravaganza, Helen and I stopped in at The Great Lost Bear for lunch. I’m in absolute mad love with this restaurant/pub! For the ale aficionados amongst us, they have 78 taps with over 50 Craft Beers from the Northeast and 25 Maine Microbreweries. All this AND they’ve got a big, diverse menu—the food’s astoundingly good. So fab in fact that, though only in the Portland area for two and a half days, we stopped in there twice.

Gotta say, their made in-house veggie burgers are totally amazing. They've a bunch of other veggie and full on vegan offerings so, between this and all the brilliant Portland galleries (and the museum!), I clearly need to visit this burg again soon.