Monkey's Blog - with a little help from Alice

Catching up: Doing Art  3

National Galleries of Scotland

Oh dear! We're about to go Down South again, to visit Alice's friend who suggested this blog in the first place. (See 2012 May: Here we go!) And we'll be off to the wonderful Tate Britain Gallery this time, to see the Pre-Raphaelites. Should be positively luscious. So we'll be coming back with even more photos and new insights.

And we still haven't told you about the other exhibitions we saw recently nearer home...

The main Scottish National Gallery (above) is in the centre of Edinburgh, near Princes' Street Gardens. You can see the relatively new cafe and bookshop area which links it with the Royal Scottish Academy building. (Off camera to the right.)
Do click on the images, won't you?

Here's the front of the Royal Scottish Academy, where in fact most of the SNG big exhibitions are held - and advertised between the pillars. A shame I'm so fuzzy, but my photographer said we couldn't have me and the building in focus at once. Sigh...

Van Gogh to Kandinsky

I told Alice to keep it brief (though I doubt she's capable of that!) and not to worry about the extra comments and links - that stuff she so loves hunting out - but just include all the photos of me, and a few interesting ones of the pictures we saw, to give you the general idea.

The exhibition itself was a bit of a cheat - only two each by the named artists, and the original of the famous Sower on the giant poster is really tiny! But it was still exciting to see the marks of every stroke VanG had actually made in 1888 with his own hand and brush. His is a sad story however. Doctor Who and Amy once visited him, to cheer him up by telling him how he became appreciated much later on.

Symbols

The other paintings though, were quite lovely. They said they were all by Symbolist Painters. Now this is what symbols mean to me! Alice has included quite a few astrological ones (trust her!) but the point I'm making is clear, anyway. If you follow the Link, you'll read that these painters were trying to portray emotions and moods. Which they certainly did!

Even gloomy old Munch managed a nice snow scene (Left). You can see the lines and shapes are similar to the ones in his more depressing prints. (See 2012 October: Doing Art.)

And this beautiful woodland scene, (Right) Dew-Drenched Furze, by John Everett Millais was just huge. When you looked from the other end of the gallery, you felt you could walk right into it! Aaah...

Crane's Horses of Neptune (Left) was full of fascinating details when you went up close. Click to see what I mean.

Watts' After the Deluge: the 41st day (Right) was another giant canvas. You'd need to see the original to get the full impact of the brilliant colour. I assume it's meant to be the view after Noah's flood. Alice objects that the supposed flood wasn't created by Noah - but you know what I mean!

One of my favourites was this tiny little painting, Le Pouldu, by Charles Filiger. I liked the simple flowing lines and the pretty colours.

I thought you could make out a woman, with a ragged cloak blowing in the wind, holding onto a tree stump.
Alice just snorted, but agreed to type in my "associations".

Her favourite was Lake Keitele by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. It was truely atmospheric, I have to admit. The guide said it showed the ripples left in the water by Vainamoinem's boat in the Epic of Kalevala. No, I'd never heard of the artist OR the myth, either - but that's the joy of going to these exhibitions. Always something new to learn! So I forgive them the misleading title.

Well, that was definitely not brief. Just as I suspected!

There's still more to come, so watch this space if you're interested in our arty expeditions...