These past few days in Edinburgh have been another beautiful look into a great Scottish city. Three days ago we took the train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. We traveled through a lovely stretch of Scottish coast embedded with little treasures that appeared for a moment and then were gone. The bridge over the Firth of Forth felt almost as if we were flying over the water. I thought Aberdeen was special, and it has its own charm but Edinburgh has trumped it with its plethora of Gothic spires, carved facades and twisting back streets. The castle and the rock it has been built upon seems to have sprung fully formed from a set designers imagination.
After we explored the stronghold we braved the rain and found our way to the Palace of Holyrood. Of the two impressive royal buildings I preferred this one. It was more intimate and we had some rooms to ourselves opposed to the throng of tourists we encountered at the castle. One room had a ceiling so extravagantly decorated with plaster leaves that it seemed at any moment it may shed like a deciduous tree to cover the furniture in a blanket of white leaves.
I was surprised by the effect that the Elizabethan portraits had on me. Until that moment I had thought I wanted my art to be more like that of Waterhouse or Rosetti but after seeing those works up close at the Aberdeen Art Gallery I was surprised by the lose brushwork and lack of obsessive detail which I always imagined they contained when I saw them in books. This doesn't mean that I loved them any less but when I saw the Tudor portraits in Holyrood it was as if I was hit by a lightning bolt. I always wanted to be a Pre-Rapaelite but now I realize my art is more akin to something far older and much more finicky. The feeling I want to instill in my works, the attention to meticulous detail, everything fell into place for me in that room.
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| Interior of 'The Kenilworth' on Rose Street in Edinburgh with its wonderful tiled walls. |
We decided to have dinner at The Kenilworth, tried Haggis and thought about what I had seen that day. The next morning we waited outside the Scottish National Portrait Gallery totally unaware of what lay in wait inside. The doors finally opened and I found myself in one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen.
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| Central hall at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh |
Again the Tudor portraits took my breath away. There is something so emotive about them. They are flat and decorative but there is something so truthful and almost haunting about these images. I love the black backgrounds, the tilting of floors and tables, the sense of theatrical drama, power and storytelling that they emit. This portrait of Mary Queen of Scots contains writing and dates that raise the sense of gravity in the painting.
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| Mary Queen of Scots |
Today we also moved to new accommodation. It just so happens that this guest house in Castle Street was originally the birthplace of Kenneth Grahame the author of 'The Wind in the Willows' one of my favorite childhood stories. We have a room at the very top of the house with a view from the bay window to the castle on one side and the Firth of Forth on the other. It's fantastic, a tiny room which consists of many angles and is so high up it feels detached from the rest of the world.
Later that day we visited the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens and not only wandered through a series of stunning glasshouses dripping with orchids and old mans beard but stumbled across a wonderful sculpture by one of our favorite British artists, Andy Goldsworthy.
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| Andy Goldsworthy sculpture |
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| Victorian Glasshouse entrance |
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| Karp at the Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens |
