Cathy's Art Diary

Lovely exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland looking at modern designer silverware. The work comes from the Goldsmith’s Company collection. The company commissions and purchases new work for its collection and has added 150 items since 2000. There were a number of works by Hiroshi Suzuki who does beautiful designs with fluted sides. Also a number of pairs of candelabra from very classic designs by Frances Loyen or more contemporary ones by Alex Brogden. There were a number of exquisite beakers including some with plique a jour enamel and one by Jane Short covering in enamel fish scales. My favourite piece was wonderful centrepiece called “Spiritus” by Teresa Nguguyen which consisted of fine leaves in a spiral shape.

Fabulous exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland looking at the invention of photography and how quickly it took off in the Victorian era. The show was based on the galleries own collection as well as that of Bernard Howarth-Loomes which has been on loan to the gallery since 2003. It began by looking at the rival developer of photography Fox Talbot and Daguere and paralleled their experiments and early use of their techniques and included the first book of photographs ever published in 1844 by Talbot. The show was beautifully designed with pictures shown in mock ups of old cameras and later on in faux shop windows. There was a lot of pictures but the show managed to strike a good balance between telling the story and the detail. It looked at the development of the professional studios and the fashion for having you photograph. This moved on to talk about the Carte de viste, a smaller format that was developed and which were not only taken for private use but als...

Interesting exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery at Holyrood House looking at the relationship between the royal family and Scottish artists in the 18th and 19th centuries. The show gave a good overview of the taste of British monarchs and the development of Scottish art. It began with George III and the support he gave to Allan Ramsey who painting the main royal portraits of which hundreds of copies were made. Ramsey was the first Scottish artist of European significance. It then looked at David Wilkie and in particular two pictures purchased by the Prince Regent but it also looked at his work after he had visited Spain when he started using brighter colours and covered subjects from the peninsular war. There was also a lovely picture by him of Queen Victoria, probably the earliest picture of her as the reigning monarch. There was a large section on Queen Victoria and her taste for all things Scottish including portraits of the staff at Balmoral by Kenneth MacLeay. It a...

Surprising exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery by the photographic group Document Scotland examining Scottish identity following the referendum. It consisted of four sets of pictures, one by each of the group looking at different aspects of Scottish life and history. I will admit I did go expecting it to be a bit dull and worthy but it was really interesting and highlighted different aspects of Scottish life. Stephen McLaren looked at the legacy of the slave trade in Scotland contrasting where the men who made the money came from and where it was made. This included a nice set off portraits of people in the West Indies with Scottish surnames which had probably derived from their ancestors being the property of plantations owned by Scots men. Colin McPherson looked at the rituals of football and particularly at the lower league Scottish clubs. These were poignant pictures of empty dilapidated terraces and devoted men. The names of the grounds were the ...

Disappointing exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery looking at the First World War in Scotland. I just say disappointing as even I may have over dosed on the First World War. I felt this couldn’t decide if it was a portrait exhibition or a general art exhibition. It was mainly portraits but it then threw in “Avatar” by Henry Lintott an allegorical work on the war and the modern photos of the Somme by Peter Catterall, which I love, but which aren’t portraits. If it was aiming to be a more general artistic look at the war it needed more general pictures and less of the slightly obscure portraits. There were however some interesting stories which I didn’t know for example there was a portrait of Alexander Fleming as the development of penicillin was based on his observations of wound in the First World War. I loved the fact here was a cartoon for one of the friezes of the Scottish War Memorial at the castle which I love. The full sized drawing was by Morris Mer...

Beautiful exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery looking at sculpted heads and figures from ancient times to now. I say beautiful because of the lay out. It was displayed in a dark rather contained space with the pieces shown at different heights and viewable from all sides. It mixed genres and materials so that you looked at each object as an individual item not as part of a group. There was even one figure handing from the ceiling and a few interesting twists and turns which meant objects were revealed as you walked round. There was also a clever use of reflections off the darkened windows. A stunning display! There is of course a however, it was a bit over themed. There were four portrait?, material, the function and breaking out. This did give some narrative to the work but it was sometimes a bit confusing as to which category you were looking at but frankly on the whole it didn’t matter. I know I like a narrative to take me round a show but in this case,...

Thought provoking exhibition in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh of photos by    Nick Hedges commissioned by Shelter in the 1960s and 70s. Displayed on large boards in this open air space and concentrating on pictures from Scotland these were moving pictures of housing conditions inevitably leading you to question how much things had changed. The quote from Hedge said that he believed people's opportunities were restricted by their circumstances. The pictures were warm and not patronising and had been used in articles, advert and reports in this era. I thought the most moving one was of a woman in a Glasgow tenement in 1971 who had been left in the building while others had been rehoused but she was still on the waiting list. One morning she was woken up by the wrecking balls knocking down the building as she had in fact been forgotten.   Closed on 31 October 2015.

Nice exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir David Young Cameron who is best known as a print maker and was part of the etchings revival of the late 19th century. I loved his very detailed pictures of architecture such as one of the Five Sisters’ Window in York Minster which gave a wonderful sense of the shape and effect of the window. Similarly I liked one of Winchester Cathedral with great arches of light formed by the dark architectures around them. The commentary said he was a deeply religious man who believed that beauty and decoration were essential to worship. I was interested to see how he’d be influenced by Rembrandt, having visited the Rembrandt House recently, and that he had given 56 Rembrandt prints to the gallery which he had collected. He sat on the Board of Trustees of the gallery and there was a lovely print of the building itself by him in a cabinet in the middle of the room. In fact he had been beh...

Small exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland of 19th century landscapes from this private collection which are on long term loan to the gallery focusing on Norwegian and Swiss artists. These were rather lovely small pictures of dramatic views with interesting commentaries which pointed out the links between the artists. I loved Thomas Fearnley’s “Fishing at Derwent Water” with a dramatic linear composition of rocks in the foreground, a row of reeds, the water then mountains in the background and with a fisherman at the centre. Also a wonderful study of rocks by Alexander Calamer where the rocks and the water running over them were the same colour but he managed to give a sense of the different feel and texture. Closes on 20 January 2016.

Interesting exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery bringing together new children’s book illustrators with established artists in the field for a year’s mentoring. The show hung examples of the work that the new illustrator had done during the year and work by their mentors plus interviews about what they had both got out of the relationship.   I loved the work of new comer Hannah Coulson who had done pictures to illustrate Italian folk tales including a lovely picture of a geese herder with the geese as silhouettes against the girl’s long coat. I also loved a picture by her mentors Mick Manning and Brita Granstrom for a book on the Beatles. I liked Catherine Lindlow’s pictures for a book on a child and their relationship with food. Who could resist “The Joy of Spaghetti Hoops” for the title alone! Also some stunning pictures by Tracey Smith of collage style pictures of houses against a dark background but I couldn’t work out what project they were for. Close...

Colourful exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland looking at the life and work of Arthur Melville. This was a chronologically arranged show with lovely pictures from throughout Melville’s career. The early section looked at his two years in Paris and his influences. I loved his picture from the Royal Academy “A Cabbage Garden”, a study in the colour in cabbages in a rather Millet like picture. From there it looked at his travels in the Middle East. It explained his reputation as an adventurer came from this time when he was attached by bandits. He did wonderful open air watercolours into this period which he developed into scenes into narrative pictures. I preferred the freer early versions as sometime the stories in the finished versions seemed a bit kitsch. He had a really good eye for composing and cropping an image. There was a nice section on his work in the Orkneys including a lovely picture of a dark Orkney cathedral pulled together by the white splash o...

Fascinating exhibition over a number of galleries in Scotland giving an overview of 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland. I saw the works at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Scottish National Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. As with all contemporary art overview there was good stuff and not so good stuff but I think I only said ‘silly’ and moved on rapidly about twice! On the bad side, I am not sure videos always work in a gallery space. Much as I found Henry Coombes film about Landseer amusing it didn’t have the same feeling as viewing an art work. Similarly Rosalind Nashashibi’s films were interesting but just demanded too much of your time. I was interested in Callum Innes large geometric pictures which were made my painting square then using turpentine to remove one square. It’s hard to describe but a good effect and an interesting technique. Who could fail to be amused by Ross Sinclair’s “Real Life Rocky Mountain” which put a hill in...

A slightly random exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery of recently acquired prints and drawings although it did include some lovely works. I loved a Sir Joseph Noel Paton, head of Robert the Bruce, particularly as his father’s collection included some of the bones of the Bruce and his mother claimed to be descended from him. The picture itself was a wonderful big head of a Victorian Medieval Knight. There was a nice view of Rom by Turner on his first trip there in 1819-20 but with slightly odd foreground figures. Plus a nice view of Harlech Castle by Paul Sandby, who I seem to being followed by at the moment!

Nice exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery bringing together three of the Titian Metamorphosis pictures and showing them with other Venetian pictures from this time from their collection.   Pictures around it included a good Bassano “Adoration of the Kings” which included a very good bottom, a “Christ carried to the tomb” by Tintoretto, which had a surprising amount of colour in it for him and a portrait of an archer which might be a Giorgione. The commentary was also fascinating. I had realised that Venetians were good at colour because they had such great access to pigments through the trade routes but I had never realised they liked using canvas as it was the same material used for the sails of the ships! I had also never thought about the great use of landscape in Venetian art, when they don’t really have any! There was also a good room of prints and drawings the best being a woodcut by Titian, which is thought he drew on the block and then someone else ...

Interesting exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery of portraits by John Byrne which he had helped to pick. Many of these pictures were quite quirky with a slight cartoon quality, such as that of Billy Connolly but there were also some very formal commissions. There were a lot of self-portraits and it was interesting to see him change over the years both in style and look. I liked a picture of Gerry Rafferty done on a guitar. However my favourite was a stunning picture of Tilda Swinton. She was place low in the frame against a white background with great horizontal lines making up her picture. A very painterly work.

Small exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery looking at the life of Princess Henrietta Anne, the youngest daughter of Charles I and a great ally of her brother Charles II. She was smuggled out of England during the Civil War and raised at the French court, marrying Louis XIV’s younger brother, the gay Earl of Orleans. Sadly she died aged just 26 but did use her political position to help Charles II. The main picture in the show was by Jean Nocret of her in a stunning blue dress. There were also examples of the letters between herself and her brother full of court life and gossip. This was a fascinating look at a forgotten, short life which was very significant at the time.

Lovely exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery focusing on drawings and watercolours by Ruskin. The works set up a nice contrast between the very detailed architectural studies, often focusing in on a particular detail, and pictures of vast mountains and scenery.   I was also interested to see him copying the work of other artists such as Carpaccio’s “Dream of St Ursula” and that he also collected, and later took, photographs. There was one picture of a Blenheim Orange Apple which you felt you could have just picked up the fruit and eaten it.

Super exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland looking at the life of Mary, Queen of Scots. It went through her life in chronological order with a narrative commentary round the middle of the gallery and the objects illustrating the story nearby. I thought I knew quite a bit about her but I had not realized she became Queen at just 6 days old.   She made some poor choices in her life but a series of misfortunes early on stacked the cards against her. There were some wonderful objects in the exhibition such as the crime scene plan of Darnley’s murder and furniture and décor from Mary of Guise’s house. There were also some great pictures which I’d never seen including some amazing portraits in enamel. I loved a reconstruction that had been made for the exhibition of a 3D image of her based on a series of early portraits to show what she might have looked like when living in Scotland as there are no portraits from that period. It was magical to see her as it wou...

Small exhibition at the Museum of Scotland of Edinburgh to showcase their collection of Scottish railway posters. I have always been interested in travel posters and how railways companies and others used good contemporary artists to design them. In this show I like “Waverley Station” by Brendan Neiland which was a broken up Hockneyesque image. They had both the original and the poster.  There was also a good section on the Forth Bridge . 

Fascinating exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh of works by the 18th printmaker, Piranesi. Piranesi travelled to Rome and recorded and help to restore the city. The exhibition included a view of forum as was then with an arch half buried! However he also did designs for interior decoration although few were used not used. I loved his invented images of prisons full of small horrific figures in vast impractical buildings. Real works of fantasy. Since seeing this his works also cropped up in an exhibition at the Ashmolean and I feel he will now be one of those artists that keeps appearing in unlikely places.