Summer Collection

Over breakfast I mention a visit to the Royal Academy which gets an immediate, negative response. Madeleine: "That is so not part of the program" and Eitan lends his full, indignant, support. I sigh - it is not like going to the dentist for Pete's sake. Once the Shakespeares realise their fate sealed it becomes a negotiation of time - like, how much we will spend there. We start at thirty-minutes and take it down to 20 but then their attitude irritates me so I bring it up to 25 then 30 and 35 (Eitan: "Madeleine, don't you see? Just stop talking!"). So from breakfast we stroll along Piccadilly to the RA's Annenberg Courtyard. Last time we were here we met Bryan Kneale whose work then on display. Today three new sculptures on offer - pictured, with the Burlington House reflected. I don't have the artist so will have to return later.

My intention to drag, er - show - Eitan and Madeleine the pre-Raphalites but realise the Summer Exhibition still with us until mid-August and much more compelling for them. The collection includes a wide range of new work by established and unknown artists in all media including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and architecture. Much of it strange or shocking, like the piercing eyes of an Iranian women whose over-sized print line-stripped with a cutting knive. Or a Damian Hirst sculpture of silver-man who has removed his skin with cutting scissors. All wonderful and I ask the kids to pick a something that moves them, to be described to dear me later. Madeleine goes straight for a modern: "Lots of swirling paint. Blue. Red. The strokes are heavy and wide; the artist must have used a large brush. It made me feel happy and a bit worried." while Eitan finds an architectural model: "I like thinking of all the people living there"