London and Art 7 August 2016

One of the advantages of being so close to London is the opportunity to see absolutely fantastic art exhibitions. You've just got to get out there and do it. A lot of the museums and art galleries are free but for special exhibitions there is usually a charge.

This was my first visit to the Royal Academy of Arts so I was really excited to see the Hockney Portraits exhibition. I had arranged to meet Ann but was early so I had a chance to look around. Entrance is through an imposing archway into the courtyard with a really strange moving metal snake.

It's a kinetic sculpture by artist Ron Arad called Spyre. In the tip is a camera that constantly captures images of the courtyard as it moves and plays them back on the screen behind it. A bit disconcerting to suddenly spy yourself larger than life on the screen.

This is a beautiful building and, as always, worth looking up to see the detail.

Before going into the gallery we had a quick look at some fantastic sculptures - the only Michaelangelo marble sculpture in Britain - the Taddei Tondo.

And some really interesting feet. Amazingly perfect!

As always there is no photography allowed inside the exhibition so a brief description will have to do. 82 portraits and one still life (the subject didn't arrive so Hockney painted a bowl of fruit), all sitting in the same yellow chair with a blue and green background. Some sitters appear more than once. Each chose their own outfit and decided on their own pose. Vibrant and colourful and full of humour. I loved them and went round more than once.

We popped in to Fortnum and Mason for tea but it wasn't the kind of place to take photos of your coffee and cake without looking dreadfully provincial so I restrained myself. Have to say it wasn't particularly memorable. Maybe I am too provincial! Well, I can live with that.

Ann dashed off to see Macbeth and I meandered up to Holland Park taking in the posh sights.

Burlington Arcade ...

The Royal Arcade ..

I do love these Mews houses ..

My destination was Leighton House Museum, the only private home art gallery in London.

Owned by Frederic, Lord Leighton, the house was designed by an architect friend, George Aitchison, and where he lived for more than 30 years. The outwardly plain house is surprisingly decorative and unique with a wonderful Arab Hall complete with Islamic tile walls, mosaic floors, a gold mosaic frieze and a small calming pool in the centre of the room. Upstairs is an enormous studio with a huge north facing window. Of course, no photography but I cheated a bit when the rooms were deserted. Shh, don't tell.

There was another temporary exhibition within the gallery - Seven Halts on the Somme by Hughie O'Donoghue. At present there are a lot of exhibitions around the centenary commemoration of the Bottle of the Somme, but this was the most moving of them all to me. The Seven Halts depict seven places where the army was stopped in 1916. The exhibition showed portions of letters written by soldiers who died in the trenches. A battle such as this is so enormously awful, but these letters brought to life the people who were there and died there.