We were running a few minutes late, but miraculously managed to find her class right before the teacher started lecturing. She's in an art history class called The Age of Impressionism. I have never taken an art history class but know about Impressionism through theater studies (damn straight interdisciplinarity) and was interested to see the paintings. I was a little thrown off though, Impressionists were definitely from France, and this is the Tate Britain, meaning all British artists. So British painters influenced the Impressionists in several ways and that's what we were there for.
Ok, I'm with you now. Fortunately for me the teacher had no idea that I was not in his class. As per usual, I kept finding myself standing at the front listening attentively and kept having to say, "No Katie, move away," to myself, "this is not your class." I thought it was interesting though.
So most of the kids in this class had obviously not done the reading. And when he asked about form, color, brushstroke, composition etc. they all just stared at him blankly. I had a hard time not trying to guess answers to fill the silence (I was also kind of shocked because he was like is this painting bright or dull? is this painting using big or small brushstrokes? I was like I can see that from way back here guys!) I also had a hard time not asking questions.
So when we went into the Preraphaelite room to look at the sweet colors, we looked at a painting called Ophelia. When he was asking who Ophelia was I couldn't keep my mouth shut. Hamlet. Duh. (This also reaffirmed especially to myself that I am really, really in to positive feedback. Still. I guess the overachieving high schooler will never really leave me.)
Amber was literally sitting there snickering at me. She was very entertained by my enthusiasm.
After her class ended, we spent some more time wandering around the museum. Then headed out to find some lunch. There was nothing close so we got back on the Tube to Leicester Square and found an Italian place. My pasta was yummy but the sausage in it looked like the pepperoni from Lunchables Pizza, so I was a little skeptical about it.
As we were wandering waiting for Leah and Ashley to come and meet us after their classes, we found the National Portrait Gallery. I love that almost all of the Museums in London are free. We wandered through the historical portraits starting with Henry the VII and Henry the VIII and his wives all the way to modern day. Most of the ones in the late 1700's and through the 1800's were Lords and politicians who I had no idea about. They were really interesting though. Not only the myriad of people that they showed, but the style in which the paintings were done. I particularly enjoyed the artists room. :)
Leah found us in the museum and we wandered through some of the 20th Century. Saw the Twiggy display, and wandered back out on to the street. As we really had no plan, we just wanted to see more of the city, we decided to go right. This was fortunate because it took us right into Trafalgar Square. We decided to climb up onto the pedestal that holds the Wellington Monument and the four Lions.
Amber is going to kill me, but being shorter than Leah and I, watching her get on to the pedestal was absolutely hilarious.
I finally made it on to one of the Lions. Because so many people climb on it, it is really slippery, so I got up there with a little pulling from Amber and Leah.
Then we wandered over to Covent Garden. Once we got there I had a flash back to when my mom took me to London when I was 13. It was pouring rain and we stayed in there for a long time. It's the first time I have really had that double, "I've been here before moment."
We explored the area trying to find Leah a cupcake from a store she knew was there. Now, as most of you know, I love sweets. I love baking cupcakes. So I was excited. But then I saw the cupcakes. All sorts of garish colors. Strange flavors. Sitting out in the open. And not a drop of buttercream frosting in sight. Who uses the hard frosting? No one should. I refused to get one.
We wandered some more and decided we wanted some warm drinks. So we sat down in an Le Pain Quotidien (which just made me think of Rex and Bambi) and got some hot chocolates. I could not resist the carrot cake on the menu, and I was not disappointed. It was some of the best carrot cake I have had and the cream cheese frosting was fantastic. (I want the recipe) Take that strange cupcakes!
After wandering through the market trying to kill some time, we got back on the Tube and headed home. It was a fun, yummy, art-filled day.
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