The F word..

Oh yes, the Festival (or, more correctly, Festivals) is upon us for another year. We have often had a mixed trade pattern over August, maybe due to our geography away from the Festival epicentre which seems to hover somewhere in the Old Town; this year however seems to have seen a shift north! Howe Street has been busy all week and us with it.

Stuart has been doing rather a lot of this, as scones fly out at an alarming rate!

We have been fighting an avalanche of framing work ever since Bill at the Steps framing gallery in Jamaica St decided to retire, so all areas of the business have been on red alert since the start of the month. Copenhagen seems a long time ago...
Our current art show is proving popular too; all local artists whom we have come to know since taking up residence on Howe Street.

Carolann Alexander has the kind of witty imagination that must keep her very busy, or maybe just keep her awake at night; I know the feeling! Her drawings and screen prints simply hum with life and observation that often make me laugh out loud - in a good way! One of my favourite things in viewing art is the feeling of getting inside someone else's head and seeing their unique worldview, which is very much the appeal to me of Carolann's work.

Lee Ritchie produces exquisitely detailed and often dream-like paintings, (lower two in the photo above) usually rooted in the natural world, but somehow transcending it. He quotes his influences as 'growth and decay', but it is always the growth that I see, and the sheer exuberant love of the growing, shining, nitty gritty of the trees, flowers and skies that occupy him.

There is no missing an Alan Lennon painting; his style is unique and unmistakeable, his figures monumental and solid; occupying a distinct world and mental state. The people of his work always seem self absorbed and meditative, the colours heightening the feeling of a timeless, 'out of this world' setting.
There is always a new spin on the theme; a new character or series of solid, thoughtful men pacing the landscape, climbing the mast like a human totem or simply pondering the great 'why' of the world. 

Two of the reasons that I love Newton Ross's paintings of the Scottish landscape revolve around colour; firstly the laborious building-up of tones and colours that give each piece a 'full', saturated feel, and secondly the wonderful 'Scottishness' of them.
So many landscape painters at the moment lean towards a heightened reality in colour; maybe an escapist slant on our gloomy greys, but they personally leave me cold. The opposite can be true in paintings focusing entirely on a palette of grey and blue that misses the nuances and shades of the Scottish seasons.
Newton catches the ochres, umbers, and grimy yellows of the landscape and much more; he comes across as someone who simply loves the land and the light upon it, and has the eyes to see how it all hangs together.

Hope to see you over the rest of the month to sample the scones, art and atmosphere; a little less frenetic than the Royal Mile, we like to see ourselves as a port in the storm that is August in Edinburgh.
We admit that this year seems to be testing our limits more than ever, but the usual warm welcome is still in place!

Happy Festival!