Showing posts with label National Portrait Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Portrait Museum. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 September 2013

Review of the Week!

It has been a very busy and eventful week.  My 4 year old grand daughter started "big school" on Tuesday - this was an emotional time for her parents.  She particularly wanted me to see her new school so I duly accompanied my daughter on Friday in the pouring rain following the long snake of parents delivering their offspring.  We were invited to stay for assembly.  My thoughts were how different things have become from even my children's time at school. There seems to be an overwhelming number of activities and clubs for kids these days - every interest catered for which can only help in building confidence and widening their skills and expertise. A surprise to me was that they don't make headmasters like they used to!  We were addressed by a Bradley Wiggins lookalike with a tight suit.  He reminded me of the "Small Faces" which sort of dates me...........


He certainly was enthusiastic and had a good rapport with the children and we came away feeling more comfortable with the fact that the atmosphere was a happy and seemingly productive one.



On Thursday my husband and I went to see "Confessions of Gordon Brown" 



Really recommend this Play which is on at Trafalgar House Studios  - fantastic performance from Ian Grieve. We hadn't been to the studios before and were surprised how small the venue - word of warning not to sit on front row!

Whatever your politics you can thoroughly enjoy - its more a message about leadership and good and bad traits. They have just reviewed the play on Sky News and the actor provided a snippet - his impersonation of William Hague is really impressive.




On the same day we popped in to the National Portrait Gallery and particularly loved the paintings by Jonathan Yeo.  His portraits of celebrities are so realistic and impressive with a twist. I never tire of looking around the gallery as there is always something new to see whilst still being able to enjoy those we have seen  before.  I sometimes think that we should charge at least one pound per head entry fee to help with the upkeep of our Galleries and Museums.  We are charged when we go to other countries and I don't think this small contribution in the UK would cause much hardship. Just a thought................

On Tuesday saw my close friend who completed her course of chemo this week before starting radiotherapy end of September. She is feeling good and thankful that she has finished with the chemo!

Wednesday had lunch with another friend who I don't manage to see so often as she is either in Geneva or Turkey - so we make the most of it when she passes through London.  So nice to have a girly lunch and to catch up - it is so important to keep in touch with friends  even if it is a challenge sometimes!


Looking forward to a quieter week and to spending more time in the gym to work off some of the lunches!!


Sunday, 9 June 2013

National Portrait and National Gallery

I never grow tired of going round our great museums.  Last week we went to the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery.  We have been so many times but each time we revisit we are amazed at the fact that there is always something new to see or something we have missed.  My particular interest is the Portrait Gallery and I love to scrutinise at close range and pick up the various techniques which have been used.  The most impressive paintings were Dame Kelly Holmes by Craig Wylie   (more like a photograph, I prefer a painting which provides for interpretation but this is truly superb nonetheless) and my favourite from many times of viewing - Freud's self portrait.

We also saw the Duchess of Cambridge's portrait.  When this was first unveiled I felt that maybe the artist had come in for undue criticism but having seen it .......for my part I was quite dismayed.  There were elements of likeness but the spirit and personality seemed to be missing. The features seemed to be out of proportion particularly the nose.  The pressure on these artists must be enormous and we are all so capable of providing criticism.  It really is worth going and see what people are talking about.

What we did comment on on our visit last week was about the volume of tourists.  We have to pay to go to museums abroad, ours are free to everyone.  I can appreciate that the Government want these great exhibits to be available to all but we have to be realistic and practical.

If everyone who entered these buildings paid just £1  it would go someway to cover a little of the enormous overheads.  You could exclude schools, students and senior citizens and still have change.  It really is worth thing about!!