Edinburgh Art Deco Style – flat roof, cream render – as seen from car park of Modern Two, Edinburgh.

Earlier this month we took in the Barbara Hepworth Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Modern Two, Edinburgh.

The Exhibition is entitled Barbara Hepworth, Art and Life and is open till 2/10/2022.

As well as sculpture, for which Hepworth is most famous, there are some of her paintings on display. In the first room this one reminded me of Mondrian:-

Photograph of Contrapuntal Forms, a Hepworth sculpture displayed at the Festival of Britain’s South Bank site in London. Part of the Skylon can be seen in the background:-

Room 2 had more early paintings. Apologies for the picture quality. I didn’t use flash as I assumed it wouldn’t be allowed:-

These watercolours are very good:-

Also in room 2, some typical Hepworth sculptures:-

The leftmost one above, Dyad, caught the good lady’s eye:-

During World War 2 Hepworth’s access to sculptural materials was limited. This is one of the sketches she made as preparation for a sculpture:-

She even designed textiles:-

An ovoid sculpture with her characteristic smooth curves and voids:-

A more traditional sculpture but still with her distinctive curves:-

Orpheus. An example of her use of strings. (See also background of Dyad, above):-

Thsi one seems to be very similar to one I photographed outside the Pier Art Centre, Stromness, a few weeks before:-

In Stromness:-

Photograph of Winged Figure, John Lewis, London:-

Photograph of Hepworth beside one of her sculptures:-

This first one I found very spooky. Those of you who know me well will understand why.

Private J Stephen, Northamptonshire Regiment, 16/8/1918:-

Squadron Leader M J Tully, Pilot, RAF, 23/11/1941:-

Lieutenant H S Consterdine, Royal Engineers, 11/6/918, aged 46:-

Private J Woods, Royal Scots, 23/3/1920:-

Private J Finlayson, RASC, 18/6/1917:-

Corporal T B Fyfe, RASC, 11/9/1919, aged 31:-

Gunner D Gemmell, Royal Artillery, 12/9/1944, aged 39:-

Lieutenant F H D Jordan, Royal Garrison Artillery, 23/7/1918 and Private J Pryde, Royal Scots, 4/12/1919:-

More war graves from Morningside Cemetery. Two of these commemorate women who died.

Private C Cox, Royal Scots, 20/12/1918, aged 47:-

Driver A D G Linton, Royal Field Artillery, 29/3/1919, aged 23:-

Nurse Leila Mabel Elliott, Territorial Nursing Service, 2/3/1920 aged 32:-

Private W Mair, Devonshire Regiment, 20/10/1919, aged 22:-

Private J Woods, Royal Scots, 24/3/1920:-

Lieutenant Albert James L Innes, RAMC, 11/3/1920, aged 27:-

Lance Corporal A Sybray, Duke of Lancs Own Yeomanry, 4/10/1916, aged 28:-

Private W McIlwraith, Royal Army Service Corps, 8/3/1919, aged 1929:-

Private Margaret White Walker, Auxiliary Territorial Service, 11/2/1945, aged 22. (Supplementary groundstone erected by employees of Wm Thyne Ltd):-

Sergeant J J Scott, Observer, RAF, 12/8/1940:-

Last week we also visited the City Art Centre in Edinburgh to have a look at an exhibition entitled National Treasure; The Scottish Modern Arts Association. The exhibition started on Sat 21 May and runs to Sun 16 Oct 2022.

The Scottish Modern Arts Association was started in the early 1900s to foster interest in and knowledge of upcoming Scottish artists. The Association mostly comprised artists and their supporters and over the years built up a collection of over 300 art works.

Unfortunately the collection never had a home to house it in despite several possibilities being put forward. Money for a building was the main problem but also a suitable site. The Association hoped to find a benefactor who could provide both. None materialised. It might have happened but the two World Wars scuppered likely suggestions.

When the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art was proposed that could have been ideal but its proponents wanted to present modern art in a wider-world context and the Association’s collection was felt to be focused too much on works by Scots.

In the end the collection was handed over to the city of Edinburgh in the 1960s and the Association wound up.

There are many very good paintings in the City Art Centre exhibition. It’s well worth a look.

One of the artists whose work I recognised instantly was Arthur Melville. This is his A Scene in Tunis:-

Very familar too was John Henry Lorimer whose The Flight of the Swallows (see link) is featured:-

Also unmistakable was the work of Joan Eardley. Field of Barley by the Sea:-

New to me was John Quinton Pringle’s Muslin Street Bridgeton which is very good indeed.

Ian Cheyne’s Loch Duich is an unusual depiction of a Scottish Loch. There is something almost Japanese about the picture. It’s also reminiscent of the art in those 1930s railway posters but not quite so delineated:-

Last September we visited the Queen’s Gallery by Holyrood Palace. On that visit the facility was offered to convert the attendance ticket to one that allowed entry for a year.

Accordingly last week we took the opportunity to take in the latest exhibition there, Masterpieces from Buckingham Place, currently on view until Sep 25. Each of the pictures was captioned with the identity of the King, Queen or Prince who purchased it. Some of the paintings below appear on the Art UK website, others I photographed myself (allowed as long as no flash was used)

Given his fate it is somewhat ironic that Judith with the Head of Holofernes, painted by Cristofano Allori (1577-1621,) was bought by Charles I. Judith’s face in this painting looks remarkably modern to me:-

Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome 1593-Naples 1652) Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura.):-

Andrea del Sarto (Florence 1486-Florence 1530) Portrait of a Woman in Yellow:-

Rembrandt van Rijn (Leiden 1606-Amsterdam 1669) Agatha Bas (1611-1658):-

One of the most striking paintings of light in the exhibition was in this other Rembrandt, Christ and St Mary Magdalene at the Tomb. My photograph fails to do it justice:-

Parmigianini (1503 – 1540) Pallas Athene. For some reason this reminded me of the cyclist Laura (Trott) Kenny. Unfortunately my photograph has a reflection of the Gallery’s central light fitting:-

Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675) Seascape with Jonah and the Whale. There is a lightning flash across the upper part of this picture of which I tried to take a close-up, but it didn’t come out:-

Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682) Evening Landscape, A Windmill by a Stream:-

The information card for the above says “a single figure swathed in black walks away from us.” Examining the picture closely two (female) figures can clearly be seen behind the black swathed one! They are brilliantly conjured up too, with just a few dabs of paint. How could the writer of the description have failed to notice them? (Is it perhaps because they are clearly women?)

There is a virtual tour of the exhibition here.

Morningside Cemetery lies between Morningside Drive and Balcarres Street in Edinburgh. It contains more than a few Commonwealth War Graves. Most are from the Great War but some are from World War 2. I found too many for one post.

Private J Couper, Royal Scots, 29/7/1915, aged 21:-

Private D A Chisholm, The Black Watch, 20/10/1920:-

Corporal D W Marwick, RAF, 23/8/1940:-

Captain W A C Taylor, RAMC, 25/8/1917, aged 44:-

Eng. Sub-Lieutenant E T Tylee, ‘HMS Nairana,’ 26/1/1919, aged 28:-

Private J T Tully, HLI, 18/9/1918, aged 31:-

Private W R Simpson, 5th Reserve Regt of Cavalry, 14/1/1915, aged 25:-

Private A M Kerr, Royal Scots Fusilier, 21/4/1920, aged 33:-

Corporal F Black, 5th Battalion Royal Scots, Queen’s Edinburgh Rifles, 27/1/1915:-

War Dedication, Captain Archibald Craig Miller, Forth Royal Garrison Artillery, 3/10/1915, aged 33:-

Or Holyrood Palace, as it is sometimes known, is the Queen’s official residence in Scotland, where investitures and garden parties are held.

I had been inside it once, as a child so many years ago now, but the good lady hadn’t. During the Covid restriction loosening in September we booked a visit.

Palace from gates to north side:-

Entrance gateway from inside outer courtyard:-

South gates looking onto Arthur’s Seat/Salisbury Crags:-

Stitch of fountain and palace from outer courtyard:-

Outer courtyard fountain:-

Older wing:-

Entrance to palace proper:-

Inner courtyard:-

In June we had a wander in Edinburgh. I took a wrong turning and we got a bit lost.

As a result, though, we came across this block of 1930s housing:-

The second left of the four looks to still have its Critall windows.* The others don’t. Their poked out eyes are not so pleasing but they look to be better upkept.

(We found our way back okay by retracing our steps and I realised where the misstep had been.)

*The link goes to all my mentions of Critall windows, inclduing the one on this post.

During that brief time when lockdown was lifted last year we were able to go to Edinburgh and visit the Royal Botanic Garden there, using a pre-booked and timed ticket.

As she’s keen on gardening and gardens it’s one of the good lady’s favourite places.

Planting by hothouses:-

Monkey puzzle trees (araucaria):-

Path with acer:-

“New Zealand ” section:-

Path in Botanic Garden:-

Bridge over burn:-

Waterfall from bridge:-

Waterfall video:-

Burn from bridge:-

The gardens are worth a visit at any time of year.