Art in Healthcare

Sunday, 4 August 2013

Artist Uncovered: Leo du Feu

Martine F Pugh catches up with landscape painter, nature lover and bird fancier Leo du Feu

At the height of summer and in this year 2013 of Natural Scotland, it seems highly appropriate to keep our focus on the artists in the Art in Healthcare collection who find inspiration in nature and Leo du Feu is the perfect choice.

A Hint of Red, West Coast Canada 22x29cm, acrylic on card

image courtesy of the artist

Leo’s name has come up before in this blog in the post ‘Art in Healthcare Reaches Out’ dated 27 November where I reported on the workshops he led for Art in Healthcare in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children. To inspire the young participants he had specially chosen the painting of a bird from the AiH collection. This choice was not random as Leo is himself an enthusiastic birdwatcher.

Coastal Defence, Aberdeenshire 50x50cm, acrylic on canvas
AiH Collection

Leo du Feu who has just turned twenty-nine, is a full-time artist who paints in the great Scottish landscape tradition and like many artists of his generation his talent is many-sided. Full-time really means full-time as his website and blog reveal the diversity of his practice.
As well as a painter with an impressive list of exhibitions and awards to his credit, he is also an educator who gives talks and leads workshops in healthcare settings, for local authorities and art groups, and also for Historic Scotland in his home town of Linlithgow.

The Old Manse, Orkney 15x21cm

private collection, image courtesy of the artist

The nineteenth century Romantic landscape painters could rely either on private wealth or on generous sponsors to pay for their travelling expenses. But their present-day counterparts have to vie for a limited number of travel scholarships and Leo has deservedly won a number of them that have taken him on journeys around Scotland and across Canada. Leo has already had one book published Sketches from Canada and a second Landscapes and Birds of Scotland, an artist’s view due to come out in October, will be accompanied by a solo exhibition at the RGI Kelly Gallery in Glasgow.

His paintings, mostly acrylic, range from postcard size to several metres high such as the four paintings commissioned by the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, now on permanent display in the foyer of their new Crawford building.

detail from the series Through the Telescope, acrylic on canvas,

UK Astronomy Technology Centre, image courtesy of the artist

His close-up studies of birds are on an intimate scale. They convey his fascination for them as he endeavours to “get a bird right” and his knowledge of their anatomy and behaviour. On the other hand, his landscapes of spectacular hills and skies, intense wooded areas and coastal scenery, allow his lyrical temperament to come through with dramatic light effects and compositions which allude to the land of dreams.
His blog ‘Landscape, art, nature, birds’ eloquently records the observations he makes during his frequent trips around Scotland, including to the Highlands and islands, filling up his sketchbooks with drawings that he develops later back in his studio into paintings. Increasingly Leo also completes finished watercolours out in the field. His style is representational and this reflects his deep respect for his subject matter.

Common Gull, Larus canus 14.5x21cm, acrylic on card

private collection, image courtesy of the artist

The importance of sketching can never be overstated. Professional artists need to sketch like athletes need to exercise and even if nothing in particular catches his attention while he is out and about looking for material, Leo will nonetheless stop in his track and “force himself to draw and see what happens”. The accumulation of sketches and notes altogether add up to a very personal database of marks, colours and sensations that he retrieves later in his studio to produce the artwork. Then the creative process really begins.

Isle of May Puffins blog post, June 2013

image courtesy of the artist

I particularly like the recent blogs he posted during his week-long trip to the Nature Reserve on the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. They are a very entertaining recollection of observations and anecdotes with photographs and sketches that will delight everybody. I can’t decide which of his chance meetings I prefer, the rock pipit aka lbj for ‘little brown job’ or the preening terns he captured in mid contortions!

There is no doubt about it, Leo’s success is due to both his talent and hard work and through his skilful use of social media he is also able to reach a wide audience for their enjoyment.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

With thanks to Leo du Feu for his information. You can follow him through his website and social media pages:

www.leodufeu.co.uk
landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.com
facebook.com/pages/Leo-du-Feu/175954912506839

https://twitter.com/LeoduFeu

Monday, 8 July 2013

Artist Uncovered: Ian Hamilton Finlay

Martine F Pugh searches for the man behind the genius

Ian Hamilton Finlay was a philosopher, a poet, an ‘avant-gardener’, a sculptor and a revolutionary in thoughts and temperament. How should I uncover arguably the greatest Scottish artist of the twentieth century? Then I came across an insightful essay by his son Alec where I learnt that Finlay suffered from agoraphobia all his adult life. His affliction revealed to me the man behind the genius and somehow it all began to make sense.

A, E, I, O, Blue, 1992 with Julie Farthing

silkscreen, 45.8 x 152.0 cm

Finlay dismissed his ‘nervous anxiety’ as “unpleasant, but no more interesting, really, than toothache” but his son’s tribute shows what profound effect his fear of busy urban streets had on his life and work and how it inspired him to create gardens and organise work settings where he could feel safe in natural but controlled rural environments.

Little Sparta, Finlay’s best known garden and artwork, is situated in the Pentland Hills, south of Edinburgh. Originally called Stonypath, it was an untamed moorland with only one tree in 1966 when Finlay and his wife Sue moved in. With Sue’s planting and Finlay’s planning, it evolved slowly, money was scarce, into the series of verdant gardens we can visit today that are filled with neo-classical references to Ancient Greece, Finlay’s spiritual and cultural home, and to the French Revolution whose theorists he greatly admired.

Citron Bleu, 1994, with Gary Hincks

silkscreen, 45.3 x 57.7 cm

Art historian Bill Hare defines Little Sparta as “a masterly twentieth-century reworking of the Enlightenment Landscape Garden where Apollonian power of reason seeks to control and order through art the ever-threatening chaos of unruly nature.”

What is true of the great eighteenth-century landscape tradition is also true of Finlay’s endeavour to control his own emotions by immersing himself in art and in the physicality of gardening.

Column Drum to Drum, 1991, with Gary Hincks

silkscreen, 23.8 x 57.0 cm

But Apollo carried a bow as well as a lyre and when his Arcadian haven came under bureaucratic attacks in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Finlay channelled his frustration and anger into artistic ‘wars’ through sculptures, poems and prints. Stonypath then was renamed ‘Little Sparta’, an allusion to the Spartan wars of Antiquity against Athens and to Edinburgh’s nickname of ‘Athens of the North’.

His movements may have been restricted but Finlay was nonetheless well informed as he corresponded with writers and poets in Britain and around the world. He also surrounded himself with friends and collaborators who were curators, publishers, printmakers, poets, sculptors and stone carvers. With his garden, they provided him with the supportive environment his creativity needed. His genius was to know how to use their particular vision to fulfil and expand his own.

Seams, 1969

silkscreen, 43.5 x 56.3 cm

Finlay's pioneering written work took many forms that defied syntax and convention: concrete poetry or poem objects that you can touch, one line poems, poem drawings, sound poems, embroidered texts, texts shaped in neon, small press publications such as POTH (Poor . Old . Tired . Horse) to name a few.

Art in Healthcare is fortunate to have six prints that span four decades. Together they showcase his characteristic wit and visual power and speak for themselves. Two of them may need further explaining. With ‘Citron Blue’ Finlay alluded to the shape of Orkney boats which reminded him of lemons with their protrusions fore and aft and to a poem by Goethe whom Finlay greatly admired. As for ‘Column Drum to Drum’ it refers to the building process of classical columns that involved stacking up drum-shaped sections.

Sackcloth, 1992, with Pip Hall

silkscreen, 42.0 x 42.3 cm

Ian Hamilton Finlay’s lifelong struggle against agoraphobia had an extraordinary conclusion. He suffered a stroke near the end of his life which reversed his phobia and allowed him to do some travelling once more.

Since Finlay’s death in 2006, Little Sparta has been looked after by his trust. The future seemed uncertain because of the high maintenance costs but it was announced in June this year that a deal has been signed with Edinburgh University (which now includes Edinburgh College of Art) that will allow scholars to use the house as a study centre. A new beginning unfolds.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

With thanks to

Bill Hare, art historian and Chair of Art in Healthcare Board of Trustees

The Wild Hawthorn Press for their information on the prints in the AiH collection. http://www.ianhamiltonfinlay.com/wild_hawthorn_press.html

‘Ian Hamilton Finlay – Selections’ edited and with an Introduction by Alec Finlay, University of California Press, 2012.

Little Sparta trust: http://www.littlesparta.org.uk/

The exhibition ‘Ian Hamilton Finlay. Poet. Artist. Revolutionary’ is currently running at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow until March 1 2014.

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Amelia's 'Go & See' Outreach Trip Around the Highlands & Islands

'Art in Healthcare Reach Out' on the sands of Morar beach

In the middle of June I set off as Outreach Manager for Art in Healthcare (AiH) to journey around some of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Kindly funded by the ‘Go & See’ fund, which is administered by Engage Scotland and supported by Creative Scotland, I would be away for nearly two weeks as AiH’s Ambassador on the road. My brief? To find out what is going on around some of the more remote areas of Scotland in the field of arts outreach, to learn from these organisations and share with them about AiH, and to investigate any potential new partnerships for future joint project-working.

So where did I go and what did I see
(alongside the images I snapped here and there..)?

Well, I spent 12 days driving around covering 1,210 miles, including 4 different islands and 6 ferry crossings! I also visited a wide range of services that run different arts outreach programmes from Hospitals and Drop-in/Community Centres to Museums and Galleries, meeting key people involved from Artists and an Art Therapist to Project Coordinators, Arts Officers and a Trustee.

Highland Coos bathing by GlenGorm Castle on Mull

Without exception every person I met was responsive to my mission to learn from them and to hear about AiH and, interestingly, no one had previously heard of AiH nor the range of services we now provide. For me the latter meant my trip was particularly worthwhile.

I have always valued face-to-face meetings and contact but, for me as Outreach Manager, this was what my role is about, getting out there, meeting people, explaining who we are and what we do at AiH, all with a view to building new relationships, developing new ideas and seeing our role in the bigger picture of arts and health around Scotland, above and beyond the close vicinity of Edinburgh and the 'central belt'. I was certainly rewarded for this and my trip was welcomed by people appreciating that AiH were taking the time to, quite literally, 'go and see' further afield.

Beach Pebble Art on a beach by Ness, Lewis

Along the way I learnt a LOT; this included the valuable artist residency programmes at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gallic College on Skye, and about the range of support that Atlas Arts provide to the artists of Skye and Lochalsh. I experienced the community draw of Taigh Chearsabagh as an Arts Centre on North Uist (and the cosy café), likewise the An Lanntair Arts Centre in Stornoway on Lewis with a cinema and exhibition space as well as outreach programmes for the elderly. I heard about the multiple creative opportunities provided at the Catch 23 Drop-in Centre in Stornoway and about the valuable work of a Lewis-based Art Therapist, working in schools with children who have emotional and behavioural issues.

I experienced the buzz of Ullapool’s art scene at An Talla Solais Arts Centre - connecting people with art and the Rhue Art Gallery - supporting emerging artists, likewise the active McPhail Community Centre that rolls out numerous arts projects to the local community. I went to the Kyle Centre in Tongue and the Strathnaver Museum in Bettyhill, both fulfilling impressive roles in bringing together the local community through various services and art projects. I called in at the Timespan Museum & Art Centre in Helmsdale where I heard about their interesting range of outreach work, closely based on the local heritage and I met with a freelance Arts Officer involved with Groam House Museum in Cromarty who shared her extensive knowledge and experience as an arts officer both locally and further afield. I met with Play Pieces in Inverness, a new theatre group looking to explore theatre projects in healthcare settings and then...I ran out of time. This list is just a selection (and if you are interested in names of just who I met then please get in touch on the email address below)!

Loch Choire, Sutherland

Inevitably, I quickly realized as I went around that while I thought I was managing to fit in all the relevant people and organisations to see and meet, these people and organisations were invariably providing me with a helpful other list of essential people and organisations to meet! I reassured myself, however, with the knowledge that I was building up an extensive map in my head, not just a database of names and email addresses but a map of friendly faces and real stories that correlated to arts outreach around the country. Furthermore, I had been struck early on in the planning of my trip that once I started to ‘spread the word’ that I was going, people were contacting me about meeting up, as if once I’d committed to going, I was already starting to draw attention to AiH.

Essentially, the trip did achieve my aims insofar as gaining an insight into arts outreach around the Highlands & Islands of Scotland while raising awareness of AiH and our interest to expand our outreach remit beyond the comfort of Edinburgh. As I went from meeting to meeting, I really found myself closely examining the potential role of AiH in the wider context of Scotland. For example:

What could we offer to small communities on the remote coasts and Islands of Scotland as an arts organisation based in Edinburgh?
What might be our role in the years to come in the national context of arts and health?
And how could I, as Outreach Manager at AiH, play a role in setting the appropriate ‘wheels in motion’?

These questions may take a while to properly answer but I’m confident that with the help of those I’ve recently met and of those I’m yet to meet, I’m getting closer to the answer all the time..

Oyster catchers over the Machair, North Uist

A big thank you to those of you that met with me who generously shared your thoughts and ideas, more often than not with a cup of tea and a friendly welcome!

Do get in touch if you have any comments or thoughts about my trip on outreachmanager@artinhealthcare.org.uk or 0131 555 7638.

You can also follow us on Facebook at Art-in Healthcare and sign up to our quarterly newsletter by emailing David on admin@artinhealthcare.org.uk. Finally, you can look at our website on www.artinhealthcare.org.uk for full details of the range of services we provide to healthcare settings around Scotland.

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Ready, Steady, Abseil!

Outreach Manager, Amelia Calvert, writes about her experiences as part of Art in Healthcare's intrepid abseiling team last month...

Ready to go..

And so, on a deeply foggy day in May, with heartbeats racing, harnesses tightened, helmets fitted and gloves poised, a team of intrepid staff members, trustees, supporters and friends of Art in Healthcare, found themselves lined up along the Forth Rail Bridge, 165ft up from the beach below, a stone’s throw away from the noisy trains thundering overhead and staring rather anxiously at the vertical rope in front of us that disappeared ominously into the distant abyss of crowds cheering below.

Six months of anticipation, JustGiving plugs and wonderings about whether we would actually achieve the task condensed into this one moment, the moment when each of us were asked by our individual helpers, in a relaxed but instructive tone to “now step over the railing”. This was it, no going back, no time to think, just a simple move towards ‘sealing the deal’, as easy as climbing a fence, no? And then to sit back, straighten our legs and enjoy, ha! Oh and smile at the camera before heading down..

Heading down..

The rest is history. Remarkably, we mostly did all smile at the camera and we mostly did all make it to the sand below in both good heart and good health (the latter perhaps less remarkable because the safety of the event seems very watertight). What remains now is to issue multiple thank you’s. Thank you to all our supporters for their generous donations, raising us a total of £7,194.55 plus Gift Aid to date and still increasing.. Thank you to our friends and families for their emotional and mental support – no, the bridge will not fall down and no, there will not be killer seals waiting for you at the bottom. Thank you to CHSS for putting together a fantastic event of which we could be a part (a phenomenal £155,000 was raised on the day for different charities and over £100,000 was raised for CHSS alone) and, most importantly, thank you to the weather fairy for hiding the true scale of the bridge in thick fog before we made our anxious ascent to start the daring descent..

We did it!

Watch our YouTube video of the event, kindly put together by fellow abseiler and volunteer, David Oxley: http://youtu.be/65Wo2mzlCcc

Thursday, 6 June 2013

Artist Uncovered: Ade Adesina

Martine Foltier Pugh presents Art in Healthcare latest artist

One of the highlights of the Art in Healthcare calendar is the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) New Contemporaries annual exhibition, not only because of the concentration of emerging talents on display, hand picked amongst the best of Scotland’s recent graduates but also because they are able to purchase works for their collection with funding from the Hope Scott Trust.

This year Art in Healthcare have been bowled over by the art of master printmaker Ade Adesina, who graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen.

RSA exhibition, image courtesy of the artist

It is easy to see why. The Nigerian born artist now based in the UK brings together technical virtuosity with thought-provoking themes. His highly detailed lino cuts and etchings showcase his dual Nigerian and British cultural heritage and his concern for environmental issues is delivered with a keen sense of humour. The accuracy of his drawings comes mostly from direct observation recorded through sketches and photographs while experiencing other cultures. Travelling is important as it helps him formulate the issues of cultural identity that are at the heart of his practice.

RSA exhibition, image courtesy of the artist

The amount of details and repetitive marks that fill his landscapes is astonishing, each print taking him on average two months to complete. He recalls the moment when, while visiting Paris as an undergraduate, he was awestruck by an impressionist painting by Claude Monet where tiny brush strokes filled up the large canvas. Adesina revels in labour intensive processes.

“I like to work hard and I like people that are hard working. Seeing the Monet painting, I felt the pain and sleepless nights.”

Mirage lino cut 112cmx76cm

image courtesy of the artist

There are echoes of Monet’s paintings in ‘Mirage’, one of the three acquisitions by Art in Healthcare, where almost every head of wheat stands out across the expansive field. The deep trenches carved by heavy agricultural machinery take the eye down to the myriad of ripples on the Firth of Forth and to flotillas of fish farm enclosures flanked by the rail and road bridges, with the city spread around Edinburgh castle in the far distance. The use of iconic imagery here makes intensive farming appear even more incongruous and unsettling.

Decline lino cut 112cmx76cm

image courtesy of the artist

‘Decline’ is a comment on the disappearance of the majestic and slow growing baobabs because of unsustainable logging. In the print, the trees seem to act as buffers between the restless and troubled sky and the ground. What will happen when they have all gone?

North East Safari etching 100cmx70cm

image courtesy of the artist

In ‘North East Safari’, where ‘North East’ refers to the Grampian region with Dunnottar Castle and the oil rigs in the distance, the punch is forceful and the argument is multi-layered. From the nesting grouse, that famous native bird game, in the foreground to the African endangered wildlife roaming the plain below, the peace in this Garden of Eden is about to be shattered by the hunt appearing on the left while the feigned naivety of the composition derides colonial perceptions of African culture.

This satirical element transforms the work and places Adesina within the tradition of artists such as Chris Offili and Yinka Shonibare who both inspire him.

Adesina’s remarkable talent was rewarded during the RSA New Contemporaries exhibition by no less than three prizes. He has also now sold out a number of print editions. Altogether this is a highly deserved achievement that predicts a bright future.

Martine Foltier Pugh is a freelance writer and visual artist based in Edinburgh

Credits

With thanks to Ade Adesina for his information and images

Links

Ade Adesina website http://www.adeadesina.com

The Hope Scott Trust http://www.hopescotttrust.co.uk

Gray's School of Art http://www.rgu.ac.uk/about/faculties-schools-and-departments/faculty-of-design-and-technology/gray-s-school-of-art/gray-s-school-of-art

The Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporaries exhibition http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/pages/exhibition_frame.asp?id=392

And special thanks to Balfour Beatty Investments and Arts & Business Scotland for their financial support, which has enabled Art in Healthcare to produce 18 Artist Uncovered blog posts and accompanying video productions.

Thursday, 30 May 2013

How Painting a Mural as a Class Can Lift Students' Spirits

Now introducing guest blogger, Marcela De Vivo, from Los Angeles, writing on how painting a mural can lift students’ spirits. Art in Healthcare’s University Society recently completed a mural at Mannafields School, which has greatly brightened up their playground..

Mural at Mannafields School by Art in Healthcare University Society

It’s no secret that art can help independent young people find themselves, or even be used as a valuable means of healing and therapy. In fact, making art together can provide a group with a focused sense of meaning and pride.

For a classroom, such a powerful bonding experience can take things to the next level and crafting a large-scale mural is a perfect way to accomplish this. Here are a few impressive benefits of classroom mural-making that teachers should consider.

Image Courtesy of Franco Folini/Flickr.com

Creating Group Art Can Create a Group

Assign a classroom to individually paint or draw projects on their own; you’ll still have the same motley crew of young minds presenting varied islands of creativity. Assign that same collection of students to somehow produce a room-sized, coordinated color painting and the result will be an integrated organism of students with a shared sense of identity.

Making a work of art collectively is a powerful way for students to get to know each other in a profound manner. You can’t make a mural without voicing your ideas, showing your skills and—a necessary part in creating a group identity—exposing your vulnerabilities.

If a class-created mural strikes a chord among its artists, the set of individual minds that created it will have been at least slightly transformed. Leaders will have emerged. In the brainstorming, executing and administering phases of mural-making, students are likely to discover hidden strengths, allies and sense of purpose.

The Sum is Greater than its Parts

Beginning artists—or students who don’t even see themselves as artists—can be easily daunted in the creative process. Creating a work of art as part of a team can undo this insecurity in magical, unexpected ways.

First, while fledgling painters and sketchers feel nervous when presenting their ideas and feelings all alone, when their work is in conjunction with a community of classmates, it can take the heat of their individual performance. When even a clumsy-handed student can take a share in the pride of having created a massive wall painting, it’s an equally massive ego boost.

Image Courtesy of NID chick/Wikimedia Commons

Second, there truly is an element of alchemy to group creation. The voyage of discovery that happens when you let your ideas run free next to the visions of others is truly liberating—and among young people new to letting the creative juices flow, it might just be life-changing.

Murals Are the Change We Want to See.

Here’s a true anecdote that illustrates the positive power of murals. Several years ago, a Ford Motor Company plant in Detroit hired a muralist to redecorate the walls of one of its factories, giving free reign to the artist. Rather than impose his own vision, the painter asked each and every one of the plant’s line workers to tell him the images they wanted to look at every day. The artist captured a cornucopia of favorite singers, hot rods and beloved hunting dogs…resulting in the happiest, most productive set of workers the plant had seen in years.

Similarly, a group of students in Scotland found a sense of meaning by creating colorful murals for children in a school.

The point? Our lives tend to be a lot brighter when the backdrop is a colorful representation of our dreams, hopes and memories. This experience is all the more powerful when we are the ones physically responsible for creating that environment—and potentially even greater when we work together to transform the worlds of others into better places to live.

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer in Los Angeles who writes on everything from health and fitness to technology and marketing. In addition to writing for Northwest Pharmacy (http://www.northwestpharmacy.com/drug-safety-and-authenticity.html), she loves inspiring creativity in others, especially her children, in order to encourage teamwork.

Monday, 20 May 2013

Volunteering for Art in Healthcare: Art & Artist Research Project for QR Codes

When I first volunteered for Art in Healthcare's art and artist research project for QR codes, I hadn’t heard of the organisation, didn’t know what a QR code was, and had no formal training in art. The idea of doing something useful and interesting from home appealed – but would they have me? Very swiftly I was invited to a friendly induction meeting and let loose on some paintings in the Oncology Ward of Edinburgh’s Western General.

Arabella Crum Ewing's, The Sea, The Sea

The volunteer brief is to write a short piece, up to 500 words, on each artwork, which will be accessible through the QR code on the label and on the website. After looking at the works 'in situ', I use online resources, including the artist’s website. Sometimes I then contact the artist. I’ve found all of these steps fascinating, and, although at times unsure about my interpretations of the paintings, I enjoy putting the descriptions together. I’ve now written around 20 descriptions of a variety of pieces – water-colours, oils, multi-media collages, etchings and screenprints, photographs and tapestries. I’d like to write about my experiences with the three works illustrated below.

Arabella Crum Ewing’s etching, The Sea, The Sea, is in a small room in the Western’s oncology ward. I enjoyed my conversation with the woman whose bed was next to it. (One of the pleasures of visiting the hospital is seeing how the people who see the pictures every day react to them.) She liked the vivid scene and the detailed birds. But like me she was puzzled by the pink mushroom-like plants in the foreground! I never worked out what they were. (Any suggestions from botanists reading this are welcome!) But when I got home I found a bigger puzzle. The etching’s full title is Oaharra! Oaharra! The Sea! The Sea! Was Oaharra a place name – possibly Irish? Or Maori? I’d been in New Zealand – was that the Auckland Harbour Bridge in the background? Eventually I googled “the sea, the sea”, and found that Xenophon recorded these words as the cry of the Ancient Greek army after their trek through Asia Minor. In Greek it was Θαλαττα (pronounced “thalatta”), so the title was simply The Sea! - repeated four times. At some point someone had mistranscribed the Greek words. Mystery solved!

Stephen Lawson's, The Old Town from Waverley Bridge

Stephen Lawson’s, The Old Town from Waverley Bridge, interested me because of the artist’s distinctive style. He has specialised in time-lapse photography and his website includes a fascinating 12 minute film describing the development of his technique. The work is composed of 60 vertical slices of the view, taken at regular intervals over a day. The railings at Waverley Bridge are in the foreground, and as one’s eye is drawn along the long photograph, from Arthur’s Seat through the Old Town, the Castle, the Scott Monument to Princes Street on the left, one also becomes aware of the changes of the light on a November day – from dawn at 8am to darkness by 6pm. Another time lapse work on the website is of the Callanish Stones on Lewis. On a visit to Inverness Museum in December, it was a wonderful surprise to see that photograph on display.

Sometimes a painting can delight because of a personal connection. I took an instant liking to Shona McEwan’s, Inverleith Allotments, because I had recently seen my stepdaughter, actor Gowan Calder, in a Fringe play there. This watercolour seemed to me to perfectly capture that fertile, but slightly windswept and haphazard quality that allotments seem to have! I learned that Shona had carried out some public artworks in the 1990s and I contacted her to see what she was doing now. This is part of her reply:

Shona McEwan's, Inverleith Allotments

“I’ve always had a great love of colour and pattern. After graduating I was commissioned to do murals for the Children’s Ward at Monkland’s General Hospital, and for the recreation area of Polmont Young Offenders Institution. I also helped restore a Second World War mural in Abbot House Dunfermline. I’ve been an arts worker within a social work day centre, and am now doing my best to bring an artistic slant to promoting the work of the adult protection committee. I don’t do any of my own work now, but since moving a year ago, I’ve now at last got my own garden, and with my seven-year old daughter am discovering the joy of planting seeds and bulbs and watching things grow.”

It was lovely to get this email, which says so much about the importance of art in everyone’s life.

Written by our guest blogger and volunteer, Kate Calder, while Martine Pugh is away.

References: Arabella Crum Ewing The Sea! The Sea!:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalatta!_Thalatta!

Stephen Lawson: Edinburgh Old Town from Waverley Bridge:

www.lumieregallery.net/wp/4368/stephen-lawson