James Cutt, died of wounds, 6/7/1916, aged 21. Interred in St Sever, Rouen:-

Frederick Fox, 9th Royal Lancers, 29/1/1933, aged 30, erected by his regimental comrades:-

Samuel White Fleming, killed in action at Arras, 23/4/1917, aged 21:-

It’s not entirely clear if this commemoration is war related. Bryan Hanby Holmes of Ba, Fiji, 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery, fell asleep, 9/11/1918, aged 38:-

John Goodall, killed in action, High Wood, Somme, France, 23/7/1916, aged 23:-

Major J Eadie Davidson, DSO, died of wounds in France, 16/10/1918, aged 25:-

William Macfarlane, who fell in action on the Somme, France, 16/8/1916, aged 23:-

In loving memory of George Mason, 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps, killed whilst flying, 4/5/1917, aged 18 years:-

I took 40 more photographs of individual’s war graves at Comely Bank, scattered all over the cemetery. That’s probably too many to post on Flick and here at the moment but I may do so at some time in future.

J C Brydon, Air Mechanic 2nd class RN, HMS Sparrowhawk, 12/4/1945 age 19 and E J Chilcott, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, 25/8/1945, age 20:-

There are 15 war graves in this photograph:-

Second Lieutenant B Holmes, Royal Field Artillery, 9/11/1918, and fourteen others:-

Lieutenant W H Franke, General list, 10/12/1919, Second Lieutenant C H Lone, Highland Light Infantry, 19/2/1918, Second Lieutenant D H Cheers, East Sussex Regiment attached Royal Air Force, 17/4/1918, age 17, plus others in background and one to side:-

Second Lieutenant H M Armstrong, Royal Flying Corps, 14/11/1917, age 21, Captain C F Collett, MC, 23/12/1917, age 31, Second Lieutenant G W Macallister, Royal Air Force, 17/8/1918, age 20, Second Lieutenant E F Hughes, Royal Flying Corps, 14/11/1917, age 24, Second Lieutenant R E McKiel, 6/9/1918, age 21. Reverse of another memorial stone behind:-

Lieutenant L R Joseph, Royal Flying Corps, 23/4/1917, age 18. Another war grave behind and five others in background:-

With the exception of Lyness Royal Naval Cemetery on Hoy, Comely Bank Cemetery in Edinburgh may possibly contain the most Commonwealth War Graves in one location anywhere in Scotland. 301 servicemen are buried here, from both wars. Its location near a hospital (or two) no doubt contributed to that.

Unusually the memorial stones in the Great War section are laid flat:-

Flat memorial stones. The Stone of Remembrance is to the left here behind the shrubs:-

More flat memorial stones:-

All these flat stones commemorate more than one serviceman:-

Stone of Remembrance. It is inscribed, “1914-1918 1939-1945. To the honoured memory of his Majesty’s forces who gave their lives for their country and who lie buried in this cemetery. The following are not commemorated elsewhere. Private R Brines, Middlesex Regiment. 19/1 1920, Private A Brown, Highland Light Infantry, 9/1/1920, Private Jackson Robb, Royal Scots, 30/8/1921.”

Information board:-

Here is a wonderful Art Deco poster for the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938, held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow. I saw the poster for sale at Ingliston Antiques Fair in Edinburgh:-

There, too, was this brilliant Art Deco style chocolate box lid showing one of the two Scottish Pavilions at the Empire Exhibition, Scotland, 1938:-

Also at the same Ingliston Antiques Fair I saw this framed photo of an Art Deco building which looks as if it may have been (still be?) a hotel. The flag standard is flying a French tricolour.

Funny I hadn’t really noticed this one before.

On corner of George Street and North Castle Street, Edinburgh.

Former Royal Bank of Scotland premises. Good detailing round the door:-

Its windows and railings, on North Castle Street:-

Two days ago (Wednesday) I was in the Sainsbury’s at Straiton in Edinburgh. I happened to notice that the shop assistants’ name badges had poppies engraved on them.

It was October 10^th! Over a month till Remembrance Day.

(Okay; same time interval as last year.)

Last night a woman in the Question Time audience was sporting a largish cloth poppy. First TV sighting of the year. At least I can be sure she wasn’t corralled into wearing it.

As seen at Ingliston Antique Fair, Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh, September 2017.

“Ground” level view:-

“Platform side” view:-

Also at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One (until 28^th October) is the above titled exhibition featuring the work of Raqib Shaw.

Apparently he could not afford oil paints so started to use enamels. This gives his work the appearance of huge but intricately decorated ceramic tiles. Some of it is a bit “bling”y for me but the effect can be stunning and the detail is extraordinary particularly in the circular area of his reinvention of the Cranach. The reproductions here do not convey just how shiny his pictures are.

To do this must be so time consuming even if he does have assistants to help. I left wondering how on earth he could make a living doing this. Unless every (enamel? can you really call them paintings?) sells for tens of thousands of pounds.

Shaw speaks for himself here:-

Meanwhile over Edinburgh’s Belford Road from Modern Two; at the Modern One gallery of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is an exhibition called NOW which mainly features Jenny Saville. It’s on until 12^th September.

Most of her paintings are larger-than-life-size portraits – or at least feature human figures.

Some of them verge on – or overstep the boundary of – grotesque:-

This one of what looks like a child is less so:-

The introductory video from the gallery website is below. The eyes of the child in the painting over the artist’s left shoulder are very well done.

The art exhibition with the above title is on at ModernTwo (The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,) Edinburgh until 21/10/2018.

Nolde was born in a part of Germany that became Danish after a plebiscite in 1920 (though had presumably been Danish before the war of 1864) thought of himself as German yet retained Danish citizenship.

I noticed at the entrance that the gallery felt it had to emphasise it in no way endorsed Nolde’s anti-semitic views.

Despite those views and his membership of the Nazi party Nolde’s works were the single most withdrawn from museums by the Nazis (1,052 works) and the most represented in their Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) Exhibition, which managed to draw huge crowds – some of whom were quite enthusiastic about the contents.

I found myself not knowing quite what to make of Colour is Life. Some of the paintings were undoubtedly grotesque like Paradise Lost, Adam and Eve after expulsion from the Garden of Eden

and his Immaculate Conception (which I cannot find an example of to embed here) showing the mother of Jesus in an attitude of ecstasy as the Holy Spirit hovers nearby is in a similar style only more so.

Others are reminiscent of Toulouse-Lautrec posters, only more garish:-

On the other hand some of his pen and ink drawings reminded me of the Rembrandt ones in the exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery.

His depiction of the sails in one of his paintings of junks looked like Japanese calligraphy. I’m not sure I’ve found the exact match, the original image of the one below is apparently copyright so this is only a thumbnail:-

This is a more colourful version of a similar subject:-

The introductory video from the exhibition’s web page is also on YouTube:-