A CUSTOM-BUILT laboratory has been created in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh to house artwork of microscopic proportions.

As part of Cells: The Smallest Portraits exhibition, young people from James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh – including 13-year-old Hamish Stewart, pictured –– and Penicuik High School created tiny portraits in this collaborative visual art and science project.

The pupils worked with the staff at the National Galleries of Scotland alongside the Roslin Institutes from the University of Edinburgh to create varied portraits of their own, based on their discoveries.

It comes alongside the Gallery's Pioneers of Science display, which showcases people whose theories, experiments, discoveries and inventions have helped shape the modern world and whose legacy continues to influence and inspire scientific and technological developments.

Picture: Gordon Terris