A Weekend In Edinburgh

 A quick trip to Edinburgh  in interesting times ( tourists and TV film crews in equal measure! ).  I wonder  what  my dad would have thought of  the referendum , he always called Glasgow 'Home' despite living in England from his 20's and the family tree going back to the 1760's is very firmly rooted  around Lanarkshire.
I got a very early train on Friday  arriving just after midday and had a free afternoon  so I caught the 'Gallery Bus' from the Scottish National Gallery to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, concentrating  on the extensive range of work by artists as part of 'Generation'. The grounds of 'Modern 1' include this amazing earthwork and the grounds were scattered with sculpture. I downloaded  the ' arthunter' app as I had my tablet with me and  picked up copies of the 4 trails which highlighted different pieces. Alison Watt's portrayal of  fabric started giving me ideas.

 

Friday evening and all of Saturday I was involved with meetings associated with the British Bryological Society, great to catch up with people and some very interesting presentations. We were at the 'Botanics' and we had a few  minutes at lunch time to dash out and admire the gardens , especially the magnificent trees. 



 My final morning on Sunday before I headed off to the train ( I was  able to leave my bags at the excellent 'Ashlyn' guest house  where I stayed) , I caught up with the rest of the Generation exhibition at the SNG on the Mound .  I  spent ages looking at the paintings by Callum Innes ( I first came across his works on paper at the Tate Watercolour exhibition a few years ago. In his 'Exposed ' series, he applies oil paint to canvas then removes areas of paint with turpentine. Through the art of unveiling, he likens  the process to alchemy, turning ordinary substances into gold (I always think of indigo dyeing as alchemy). The result remind me of chromatography - I  still remember the chemistry classes where the colours contained in black ink were revealed    

  My 'find' of the trip though was the  new acquisition from the Art Fund of the 'chalk cutting' by Arthur Melville , one of the 'Glasgow Boys'

 I didn't leave myself enough time to the  National Museum of Scotland justice ,  just enough to grab lunch and I only saw the new part (including this massive tapestry from the Dovecot studios) on my way out. Will just have to come back - I  only ever seem to go to Edinburgh on work-related trips.     

 Return train journeys are always more tedious than the outward journey but at least the sun was shining  as we followed the coast

 

 

 

Even a snapped view of a castle in the distance!