Pippin Paints a Portrait

A laugh-out-loud story of artistic expression, told in direct speech and adorable manga-inflected illustrations by Charlotte Mei.

“Today I am going to paint a portrait. It is a portrait of someone very important. That someone is ME (it is a self-portrait). All famous artists paint pictures of themselves, and I am a famous artist. Or at least I will be when I’ve finished my portrait.”

Pippin is painting his self-portrait, but his friends think he’s got a lot to learn about painting. They take him to see Angelique’s portrait, which takes inspiration from Cubism, Dudley’s portrait, which is inspired by the work of Chris Ofili, Momo’s portrait, which draws from the work of Yayoi Kusama, and Franklin and Aaliya’s portrait, which is a colour field painting in the style of Mark Rothko.

Pippin is feeling very deflated, but his little friend Minky helps him to dig deep and find the artist inside himself.

Packed with information about famous artists, their approaches and their mediums, this book simultaneously engages, informs and asks young readers to question how they themselves ‘read’ and create art.