Week 3: Edinburgh, Scotland

Dean Village on the way to the Modern Art Gallery

Hello!

I will catch you up with some of my past rambles around this lovely city of Edinburgh and then I will tell you a little about art! Because after all this is an ART blog right? Right!

The time seemed to fly by as we approached the end of my third week in Scotland.

On Saturday I got up early and waited in anticipation for the opening of the flea market at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall. Once inside, I quickly scored 6 lovely old maps of Scotland for just 10 pounds. The oldest map was from 1908 and the youngest from 1940. I imagine these are raw materials for future art. Later in the evening, there was a brisk walk to Ocean Terminal, which is a large shopping complex next to the Firth of Forth. We met up with Stewart's Mom, Dad, Sister and Stewart's niece for an Italian dinner, in a large glass front restaurant over looking the water. I don't know why exactly but there seems to be an abundance of good Italian food here in this town.

On Easter Sunday, there was some family research at home and later, another family dinner, this time at Stewart's Mom's place where we enjoyed Chinese delivery with his sister again. I had made hot cross buns on Friday, so we took some for dessert. Family traditions are always sweeter when far away, they seem to provide some sort of grounding or reassurance. We caught the bus home and sat up front in the top deck, like a proper tourist. I always enjoy the night time bus rides back from Stewart's Mom's place. Something sort of warm and cozy about the night bus and after the walk there it feels almost luxurious to get a ride home.

On Monday, we took a long walk to the Modern Gallery of art to take in the currently exhibition. I love this walk by the water of Leith and through Stockbridge and Dean village and Dean cemetery. Once at the gallery, I was thrilled to see five Francesca Woodman photographs on show. I had only ever seen one print in person before, so this was a lovely treat and even better because it was a total surprise. The rest of the show pretty much left me cold. You can read Stewart's review of the exhibition to get a sense of it. 

On Tuesday (after Monday's long walk) time was spent indoors and researching my great great great grandparents, Murdoch Campbell and Christian McNeill Campbell. I also made arrangements and enrolled two Yoga classes. A four week class that meets for an hour every Wednesday night for 4 weeks which is around the corner and then a ten week class that meets every Friday for 2 hours which I will have to take the bus to and where I will meeting up with a friend who is also taking the class. I am really looking forward to the yoga, it has always done more for me than almost anything else I have tried to do to bring me a sense of calm and ready my brain for art making. I am so pleased I am taking advantage of all the city has to offer.

Wednesday saw the brightest day, full of sun. It is amazing the difference in the town and the mood of the people in it when the sun shines. It was a perfect day to begin my yoga class at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall. It was a small class with a teacher and eight other women and it was really great- I was so happy I signed up! I am looking forward to next Wednesday's class.

Yesterday was spent doing more research and thinking of supplies that I need to begin painting. Later there was another visit to Stewart's Mom's place, this time  to celebrate her birthday. Stewart cooked for us and also made Rhubarb crumble. It was another lovely visit. Then we caught the bus home. Like I said I do love a night time bus ride. Pat loaned me this amazing book which got me all stirred up again researching late into the night.

Today, I have been doing some project stuff, getting ready to send out some postcards as a perk to some of the lovely folks that helped to get me back here. I also got a printer for some things I want to do soon....

Enough with the soon, let's cut to the chase. This week was very exciting in the art front! I am thrilled to report that we just received confirmation from the director and curator of Cross Street Arts that Stewart Bremner and I will be having a two person exhibition in Manchester, England in mid May! This is a huge and wonderful opportunity for us both and we are very grateful for it. I have pretty clear vision of what I want to do, I will just have to see if I can pull it off...

Stay tuned...

PS. In the past 3 weeks I have walked 64.7 miles.