Every January for over 100 years, the National Gallery of Scotland has shown 38 watercolours by Joseph Mallord William Turner, free to the public in a dimly-lit room without windows. It’s a highlight for many, locals and visitors included. For many it’s a New Year treat or, in my case, a
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There’s a new mural in Edinburgh on Arthur Street, just off Leith Walk on the corner wall of Casa Amiga cafe. It’s dedicated to the much-beloved Leith legend Arthur Williams.
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For most of 2020 there’s been a danger in touching, there have been all sorts of face coverings, a feeling of ailment is in the air, a loss of energy and now a changing of seasons bringing new dangers. When I saw this painting again in 2020, it seemed to offer a different context than before. It’s an artwork that has been through its own devastating challenges too. Let’s have a long stare at Val Prinsep’s At the First Touch of Winter, Summer Fades Away (1897):
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In 2019, Scotland’s third-largest city launched its third annual Nuart Street Art Festival, taking a positive approach towards creating a public platform for local artists whilst celebrating international street artists. The festival took place over an Easter weekend of installations, murals, tours, talks and events. Although the 2020 festival has been postponed, the street art continues.
Much of the street art from previous years still exists around the city centre. The artworks can be sought out in one day with some good planning.
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Noli me Tangere by Fra Angelico is an artwork and a phrase to spark contemplation. It asks us not to cling to anything, for nothing that you can touch is permanent and no thought that you have can be held or clung to.
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John Lennon would have been 80 today. It’s difficult to imagine what he would have done in the years since his death in 1980. Most of us, though, will have heard about the time he and artist Yoko Ono gave some of their honeymoon over to promoting the idea of peace. After getting married on the 20th March 1969 in Gibraltar, the couple staged perhaps the most perfect of publicity stunts in Amsterdam and Montreal from their hotel bed.
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Street art, graffiti art, guerilla art, whatever you want to call it, it’s everywhere. Thanks to Banksy, the good stuff gets noticed and appreciated. How about some guerilla mosaic art to look out for in Edinburgh? How about Helen Miles? How about leaving behind any preconceptions you have about street artists?
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Dunbar’s Close Garden, a walk through time and space in Edinburgh’s historic Old Town…
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So, after looking at the previous post on the history of her life, how can we travel in the footsteps of Alice Guy? Much of her working life has been lost to cinema’s forgotten history. The advent of the talkies and the later dominance of Hollywood as a production centre in the USA can often obliterate the early years of cinema. Much of it is not preserved and, much like the old nitrate films themselves, seems to have gone up in smoke. But, let’s have a peek at what we might find. For a few moments, let me be your travel guide in space and time 😉
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In which decade was the world’s first-ever female film director? Was it perhaps the ’60s? Or possibly the ’20s? No. Try the ’90s — the 1890s. Try 1896, to be exact.
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