The art of portrait

I never was interested in the portrait art, until I went to BP Portrait Prize exhibition in 2005 and while I didn’t like all of the works, I found all of them interesting in one way or another. They made me think about different painting styles, choosing the best pose, dress and background to represent the sitter and how much thought and love had to go into the paintings to capture the individuality and character of every sitter. It was fun to compare my impressions of the painted person to the information about them in the little notes beside the paintings. Often I found myself wanting to find out more without feeling that the paintings needed more explanations (I’m not a big fan of art that requires A4 page of text to be understood).

So yesterday since Cat only slept for one hour in the morning and sun was shining I went to the National Portrait Gallery to check out this year completion. I think this year’s selection was more uniform and there was less variety (though it could be that my memories of 2004 aren’t 100% correct). But there are still many interesting works to admire and study and think about. I loved the works that won the first prize and the young artist award. My other favourites were Kate by Vicki White (how I miss having a spontaneous cup of coffee with friends), Redhead (self-portrait) by Amanda Hext (reminded me my sister's hair), Amelie by Cassandra Szekely, Organia by Anastasia Pollard and actually many more.

On the way back I decided to walk to Green Park station and found out that Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition is only on until 19th of August. Anyone wants to join Cat and I on the outing to it before it ends?

Purple of the fields

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it
Alice Walker "The Color Purple"

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Clive was finally home all day yesterday after working previous two weekends (20 days of not having another parent in the house during daytime hours is a very long time). So we had fantastic day, which started with buckwheat pancakes and banana smoothies. Later Cat and I took Clive to the local park to show him the beautiful field flowers that are numerous after the recent rains. He brought his old SLR digital camera and took some wonderful photos. Now I’m on the mission to learn how to use it as it so much more advance than my one, but has some quirks and problems due to the age.

Discovering the world: field flowers

If there are no hats around

If there are no hats around try using a piece of cheese instead. Few weeks ago Cat discovered that she can take her hat off. Now I put her hat on and straight away she takes it off - makes a very fun game, except than the sun is shining brightly and there is nothing to protect her pale skin from it. At home, since hats are not always handy, I put her tiny socks or her smaller toys on top of her head as she loves taking them off – they are a bit more challenging than the hat due to the smaller size. Recently she started trying to put objects back on her head and yesterday she finally succeeded with a piece of cheese. And I thought meal times can’t get any messier*eye roll*.

One day of sunshine

Yesterday the sun was out for a change and Cat & I went to Regent’s Park. Such charming place - tranquil, yet full of life and stories: romantic couples, group of young people relaxing with some guitar playing, kids practicing yoga, old men reading the newspapers, dog walkers with all sorts of dogs and the artist in residence selling his work.

Today MetOffice issued weather warnings for heavy rain with some torrential, thundery downpours. Therefore we’ll be sticking close to home, but will enjoy the weather show from our balcony.

But what’s up with the weather this summer? Hope you are having better weather wherever you are.

Punctuality, schedules and predictability

I used to be punctual type of girl, I’m so no longer. Now I don’t even set the exact time for meetings. Instead I provide the time interval, which can be as wide as 1 hour.

In the last few weeks, after Cat switched from three naps to two, we were able to establish reasonably consistent routine and working around her napping and feeding times I could predict the times of leaving the house down to 20 minutes. Until yesterday – I was looking forward to having a midday lunch with my dear husband at the Slug and Lettuce (ah, the memories of the free life, of drinking cider and beer with Ozzies and the food - I love their honey roast ham & French brie sandwich). As usual I put Cat down for her morning nap at 9. At few minutes past ten, I rejoiced that it looked like she’ll sleep for longer than 45 minutes, at few minutes to eleven I started listening for sounds of her waking up, at 11:20 I emailed husband to let him know that we’ll be late, at 11:45 I started playing out different feeding/afternoon nap scenarios in my head as it was getting close to her lunchtime, at 12 I called my husband to cancel lunch and at 12:15 she finally woke up. Three hours and fifteen minutes! I can’t actually remember the last time she had a nap longer than two hours.

Today she only napped for 45 minutes, so we made it to lunch and had enough time beforehand to visit Museum of London

and to see few old cars, buses, trucks.

Lovely book

Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
Kahlil Gibran "The Prophet"

The Prophet is a wonderful book full of beauty and wisdom. Nearly every line is a quote and speaks to my mind, heart and soul. I recently got a collection of Kahlil Gibran’s other works and looking forward to reading it. Hope your life is full of lovely books and wise words.