I posted about my favourite painting in Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, Spring Moonlight by John Henry Lorimer, a while back. One of the things that makes it so effective is the way that light seems to shine out of the two table lamps depicted.

Well, I was in Edinburgh last week and to kill some time visited the Scottish National Gallery and in their Scottish section (for some reason tucked away in a basement at the back) and saw another painting that captures light wonderfully well, Wandering Shadows by Peter Graham.

Once again the reproduction here (from BBC Your Paintings) doesn’t do the painting justice but in the gallery the patches of light on the hill on the left were incredibly realistic.

Wandering Shadows by Peter Graham:-

This first one is directly on Queensferry Road.

A strange mixtue of styles but that rounded corner element is very deco:-

This one is back from the road. This photo was taken over the front wall:-

View showing bay window. Pity the windows have been replaced.

West side view:-

Rear window. Great stained glass here which must be original. Difficult to photograph from the access road through the foliage:-

West side view.:-

Detail of ladder leading up to roof:-

Front entrance and bay window.:-

Front entrance. Delightful square windows here:-

This is a mainly 1930s sports club building situated just beside the Water of Leith off Belford Road near the Gallery of Modern Art. That newer entrance spoils it somewhat. The photo is a stitch to get it all in.

Far end view:-

Strong horizontals and verticals here. The canopy is good, and the blue highlighting. The windows have that “eyes poked out” look though.

Side view:-

The detailing on the main wall is good. That extension is a bit bland though.

In October I was in Edinburgh three Saturdays in a row. The third was the only one where I didn’t go to a football game. Instead the good lady and I went to view Gladstone’s Land, wandering the Royal Mile first.

The Canongate Memorial is a plaque set into the wall of the Tollbooth in Canongate, towards the bottom of the Royal Mile. Canongate was at one time a separate burgh from Edinburgh which is why it has its own memorial.

This contains WW1 names only. The WW2 dead are commemorated in Canongate Kirk.

I first knew about this building a while back (east Edinburgh’s answer to the Maybury Roadhouse in the west) and had found this photo on flickr:-

The White House had obviously been “let go” and was badly in need of attention. I had always meant to seek it out but never got round to it.

However, when we left the Great Tapestry of Scotland we headed for IKEA. Not too familiar with the roads on Edinburgh’s east and south sides I got into the wrong lane and ended up traversing parts of the city we had never seen. I turned on to a main(ish) road and suddenly saw a stunning Art Deco building. I stopped at the first opportunity, leapt out of the car and photographed it. It wasn’t until I got home I discovered The White House is the Craigmillar Roadhouse newly refurbished by the local community. And marvellously so.

That curved corner sweeps pleasingly. Pity the modernised windows don’t quite look the part.

Here we have the frontage. Note triangular(ish) chimney column:-

Main Entrance. The angled stepping on the canopy support here is good and note the sweep of the far corner:-

The detailing around and above the side door here matches that of the main entrance:-

This view shows the double chimney at front and stepped chimney stack to rear matching the stepping on the frontage:-

And… Just over the road from the White House was this minor piece of thirties architecture. Now a Londis I think.

A couple of weeks ago, mostly on the good lady’s volition, we travelled to see the Great Tapestry of Scotland which was on show at the Scottish Parliament building. Its exhibition there finishes sometime in September and it will eventually end up in Melrose when the new rail line to the borders is complete.

It’s quite an impressive collection – of embroidery rather than tapestry but Hey-ho – of over 100 panels stitched by volunteers from round Scotland each one illustrating a piece of Scottish history.

I may get round to posting other views of the panels but this one featured Dumbarton Rock, which in 870 AD (or 870 CE if you prefer) fell to the Vikings:-

on the way back to where we’d parked I captured the building below on pixels. I’d passed it many times before in the car but never stopped near enough by. It’s the TSB bank in East Norton Place (London Road) Edinburgh.

The pillars on the corners are good. The street sign on the bank also says East Norton Place. From the other side the pillars are again stand outs. The style of the number 30 is nicely deco too.

Posts may be a bit sparse around here for a while.

I’m moving house at the end of the week and things are a bit hectic.

Between us the good lady and I have far too many books (we even added nine to the total on Saturday afternoon in Edinburgh) and the number of boxes strewn around is unbelievable.

On Saturday (9/11/13) I was once again at an antiques fair at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, Edinburgh.

One of the items for sale was this impressive object:-

A life size model of American Civil War Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. Yours for £600!

Also for sale was this extremely ancient piece of technology:-

What? Computers are antiques now?

Also some Soviet iconography:-

Two models of the USSR memorial to space exploration, a huge badge in the shape of a Soviet tank plus a tower of some sort.

Writers’ Bloc’s latest gig is .. a gig! Complete with music.

Unlike most word and music collaborations though, this time the words were written to complement the music rather than the more usual configuration familiar from film and television.

The musicians are John Lemke and Poppy Ackroyd and the event is titled Sterne und Autobahnen.

It takes place on Wednesday (14^th Aug) at the Spiegeltent, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, starting at 9 pm.

Entry is free!

I spotted this when we were at the book sale in Edinburgh on the 11^th May. It has the look of deco about it. From this angle the stepped back roof isn’t too apparent.

It abuts the very deco Capital Building on the corner of St Andrew’s Square.

There’s another very geometric building on its other side.

A bit too much glass to be true deco but there are lots of strong horizontals and verticals.

Here are the two from an angle which also shows the Capital Building on the extreme left and the roof stepping.