Today Dayton and I wandered around London and found the National Portrait Gallery. Inside was a treasure trove of amazing pictures of amazing people. We spent about two hours walking through halls and halls of floor to ceiling history. There were Tudors, Stuarts, Politicians, Royalty, Musicians, Astronomers, Poets/Writers, etc. Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, Darwin, Tennyson, Henry VIII, etc. Then, we approached the modern art. I was expecting blotches of paint, bundles of straws, balloons tied together, and other bizarre pieces of art. I was wrong! We found black and white photographs, sketches, and paintings of famous modern figures - Princess Diana, Paul McCartney, Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart, Lily Allen, Michael Frayn, etc.
And they were cool! My favorite was a collection of pictures about Saint Fabiola. The two rooms were filled wall to wall with different renditions of the same picture of a woman with a red shawl. There was needlepoint, sketches, oil on canvas, photographs, beans glued on, mosaics, and a whole bunch of paintings each with their own personality for this Saint. It was truly stunning!! We weren't allowed to take pictures in the gallery so I found a small portion of it online.
Today Dayton and I wandered around London and found the National Portrait Gallery. Inside was a treasure trove of amazing pictures of amazing people. We spent about two hours walking through halls and halls of floor to ceiling history. There were Tudors, Stuarts, Politicians, Royalty, Musicians, Astronomers, Poets/Writers, etc. Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, Darwin, Tennyson, Henry VIII, etc. Then, we approached the modern art. I was expecting blotches of paint, bundles of straws, balloons tied together, and other bizarre pieces of art. I was wrong! We found black and white photographs, sketches, and paintings of famous modern figures - Princess Diana, Paul McCartney, Judi Dench, Patrick Stewart, Lily Allen, Michael Frayn, etc. 
And they were cool! My favorite was a collection of pictures about Saint Fabiola. The two rooms were filled wall to wall with different renditions of the same picture of a woman with a red shawl. There was needlepoint, sketches, oil on canvas, photographs, beans glued on, mosaics, and a whole bunch of paintings each with their own personality for this Saint. It was truly stunning!! We weren't allowed to take pictures in the gallery so I found a small portion of it online.
Jealous! Don't leave us next time, nothing good comes of it.
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