Portland's First Thursday Art Walk

On the first Thursday of each month, several areas in Portland close down some streets and invite artists to display their crafts and art.  The galleries in the area all stay open until 9 p.m.  We chose to go to the Pearl District where three blocks were lined with artists on both sides of the street.  There was a variety of art for sale; clothing, photographs, wood items, paintings and more.

Shiraz is close by so we stopped by for dinner.

Afterwards, we got a map of the galleries and we enjoyed seeing a variety of beautiful (and very expensive) art.  The abstract oil on canvas shown here has a $20,000 price tag.  

Some artists start with a photograph that they tweak on Photo Shop, then print on canvas using a giant color printer.  We talked to one artists who specializes in this type of art and it was interesting to see how creative artistic skills and computer knowledge can come together to create something unique.  His web site is www.thomashookerphotography.com

We found it interesting that, out of hundreds of people at the galleries. we were by far the oldest.  Most people were between the ages of 20 and 40.  The galleries feature special shows for First Thursday so it's like a giant block party.  We spent most of our time on 9th Ave. between Couch and Hoyt and we had a great evening.  The beautiful weather made it even more enjoyable.