A Portrait Trail

S has been learning about portraits at school and so we decided to visit the National Portriat Gallery in London.

We did a family trail as suggested on their website which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.

We spent a lot of time discussing each portrait - who might be in it, where they were, how they were positioned etc, in preparation of making a photographic portrait of our family on our return.

Here the boys are discussing some of the paintings.

"The Fourdrinier Family" Attributed to John Downman, circa 1786

"The Capel Family" by Cornelius Johnson, circa 1640

We marked off what we had seen on the map and covered a good range of styles and eras.

The boys had a go at making their own portraits using the materials the gallery provided.

"It has two noses and green skin mummy" commented S. "Really?" I replied.

And here is where S got his inspiration from!

"Allen Jones" by Allen Jones 1959-1960

S continued his drawing in the restaurant at lunch time, "It's a chef".

"this is it's bottom" S shows me, pointing to the 2 round circles - inspiration from drawing the Matisse sculptures in France. 

And our finished family photo portrait - including Pudding the cat. 

S positioned us all- he was very keen to stand leaning against something, like he had seen in the "The Fourdrinier Family" portrait.