Finding the right shade of white!

There is white and then there is white!
Actually there are about close to a hundred shades of white! When trying to select a shade of white for the walls of the gallery, it became quite difficult to pick one!
An evening a week or so ago,I took several shades in mini paint cans and painted squares of white on the walls and decided I liked one shade and went out to buy several gallons of it at the Benjamin Moore place.
I went back at lunch time the next day to look at my handiwork and was terribly surprised! The "Almond Cream" shade of white that I had picked turned out to be a nasty yellowy color in the midday light!
When I lamented my plight on facebook my friend sent me a link about
the Cathedral at Rouen by Monet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rouen_Cathedral_monet

So interesting!

I immediately remembered my little neice who is a budding artist.
She was about 6 or 7 years old when I visited and she gave me a little creation of hers as a gift.
It was a a little still life of a bowl of fruit done with crayons.
I asked her why the mango was orange in some parts and yellow in some parts.
She looked at me thoughtfully, I could sense that she knew the answer, she was trying to form an answer using the limited vocabulary of a 6 year old. She finally said "the fat part shines more, so I used yellow there, the side parts are not so shiny and are a bit darker so I used a darker yellow, not orange." she ended chiding me a bit.
I was simply amazed! This little one instinctively realised the effect light has on an object and that the convex part of the mango reflected more light than the rest!
What was amazing is not just noting that fact but the ability to use her skills as an artist to translate that in her artwork as a shaded still life.
I have been looking all week at works of art and the use of light, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Vermeer is such a stunning example of the use of light!
I went with a friend to an art fair to day and noted how the artists uses light in their compositions. Whenever the play of light and shadows was used well the art work was stunning!Oterwise, it looked flat and boring.
To get back to my story of finding the right shade of white, I finally did find a shade that looked right at all times of the day! "Studio White" by Ralph Lauren"!