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In the Frame: Rob Biddulph on how art can inspire you

Rob Biddulph at the National Portrait Gallery

The #DrawWithRob creator shares the art he loves and his top tips for visiting galleries with your National Art Pass.

Illustrator Rob Biddulph finds lots of inspiration for his books in museums and galleries.

From an early trip to the Barbican with his mum, to a famous painting of a tiger that left an unforgettable impression, the brains behind draw-along sensation #DrawWithRob shares what inspires him in this episode of In the Frame.

Join Rob as he visits the National Portrait Gallery and tells us how he gets his ideas, as well as his top tips for visiting museums as a family. Plus, find out why this famous London gallery might just be his favourite in the world.

Let Rob inspire your next trip with your National Art Pass – and if you’re looking for even more places to visit, search for museums, galleries and exhibitions near you and use the filters to find exactly what you’re looking for.

In the Frame

Rob Biddulph on how art can inspire you

In the Frame with Rob Biddulph

Do you remember the first time you visited a museum or gallery?

Well, the first time I can remember visiting an art gallery, I'd probably been before, but I do remember going when I'd just started my A-levels. I was studying A-level art, and I went with my mum to the Barbican to see a Stanley Spencer exhibition called The Apotheosis of Love.

I still have the catalogue now. And I just remember his extraordinary self-portraits.I think that's what really, really spoke to me, his self-portraits and his use of colour, and it really, really informed the work that I did for my A-level.

You look at the skin tones in his self-portraits. I think up until that point I would, you know, get pink and maybe a bit of yellow here and there, and some highlights. But actually there's greens and there's blues, and it really kind of opened my eyes to the use of colour in paintings.

I think when you go to an art gallery when you're really young, it can really shape your whole understanding of the world of art, and not only your understanding of other people's paintings, but the work that you produce, too. So that's a real strong kind of formative memory that I have.

Is there a piece of art that inspires you?

There's a painting just around the corner in the National Gallery by Henri Rousseau called Tiger in a Tropical Storm. It's actually one of those paintings that's got two titles. It's called Tiger in a Tropical Storm, but it's also known as Surprised!.

It's this picture of this jungle scene. And hidden in the jungle scene is a tiger. And I think that's why it's called Surprised!, because it's really kind of camouflaged.

But I remember I went when I was in my teens, and I was just blown away, again, by the detail in that painting and the different leaf textures and the colour, and it had a very illustrative quality too. So it really appealed to me when I was younger. So much so, that when I wrote my first book, which is called Blown Away, there's a double page spread in that of a kind of jungle scene. And I literally, I was directly influenced by that Rousseau painting, the leaf textures and the pattern and that kind of thing. This was, you know, 20, 30 years later and it really, really stuck with me.

And I think that's a very important thing about going to an art gallery. It kind of replenishes your own energy for your artwork. And you're constantly picking up influence and inspiration from other people's work. And certainly that Rousseau painting is right at the forefront of my mind when I think about my experience in art galleries.

Rob Biddulph explores the National Portrait Gallery
Art Fund

Do you prefer to go to galleries alone or with someone?

I like going with other people, really. Certainly with my children, we take them to a lot of art galleries. Whenever we go on holiday, we always find a gallery in the city or the country that we're in and we take them.

I like to get their perspective on paintings, particularly paintings that I know quite well.It's always nice to get kind of a fresh perspective from somebody else who's seeing it for the first time. And as I said, you know, I went with my parents when I was younger, too, and my mum would teach me a lot about the paintings.

And it's fun, you know, and lots of galleries have art trails and worksheets and things for kids to do when you're going around the gallery, which is great. My kids love doing that, like little treasure hunts, almost. I think that's a really good way of getting kids interested in art.

I think it's quite a sociable kind of experience going to an art gallery. That being said, of course, I've been to plenty on my own as well. And that's still a lovely thing to do. But I do like sharing the experience.

How will you make the most of your National Art Pass?

I lead a really busy life. If I'm not writing books, I'm illustrating books, or if I'm not doing either of those things, I'm off on tour promoting books. And regularly I need to kind of decompress.

And there's no better way of decompressing for me than going to an art gallery, having a bit of peace and quiet to walk around and look at some amazingly inspirational works of art. Y'know, you sort of need to replenish those creative juices on a regular basis.

So I'm going to use my Art Pass to make regular visits, at least monthly visits, to an art gallery, spend a morning or an afternoon. It just recharges my batteries, my creative batteries. And I really, really love it.

Time away from screens is really, really important. We spend so much of our life looking at screens. And so to actually look at these huge canvases and these rooms full of amazing masterpieces and works of art, I think is a real antidote to the hustle and the bustle of modern day life, particularly my life, while at the same time helping me to create my work in the future.

IndividualTiana Clarke Please note this is an example card and not a reflection of the final product

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