What could be better than visiting an exhibition filled with light, sunshine and flowers? In my opinion, almost nothing and I had an absolutely fantastic time today visiting the Impressionist Gardens exhibition at the National Gallery in Edinburgh.
As the Edinburgh Festival is just around the corner it seemed a good idea to go now in order to beat the crowds and indeed there wasn't a queue to get in although there were a fair amount of people in the various rooms but not so much that you could not spend time looking at each and every picture. They were definitely worth that effort! The exhibition was filled with all my favourites, beautiful paintings, visions of stunning gardens and flowers galore. The exhibition rooms were filled with a warm sunny glow, colours to die for and an eclectic mix of paintings done by some extremely well known artist (Van Gogh, Monet, Klimt) as well as some lesser know works. Some of these did suffer a bit by comparison but to me, every picture did have something to offer me and the exhibition as a whole made my heart sing. I would have travelled much further just to see the Klimt on its own!
Don't miss this if you find yourself in Edinburgh (it's on till October 17th) and afterwards will travel to Madrid. I took in just this exhibition but there are 3 marvelous ones going on just now. The other ones being by the Danish artist Kobke (in the same venue and you can get a discounted combined ticket) and then Another World; Dali, Margritte, Miro and the Surrealists in the Dean Gallery. I'm going to visit them all and may well be back at the Impressionist Gardens too, just to drink it in some more. I like to take my time! Even today I did take a break half-way around to have a coffee and a cupcake, a work of art in its own right!
I fell in love with this picture, although it was definitely not one of the best in the exhibition. But it combined geraniums with a lady sewing in the sunshine. It could have been me had I but lived in 1888-9 when it was painted by the American artist Frederick Childe Hassam.
As the Edinburgh Festival is just around the corner it seemed a good idea to go now in order to beat the crowds and indeed there wasn't a queue to get in although there were a fair amount of people in the various rooms but not so much that you could not spend time looking at each and every picture. They were definitely worth that effort! The exhibition was filled with all my favourites, beautiful paintings, visions of stunning gardens and flowers galore. The exhibition rooms were filled with a warm sunny glow, colours to die for and an eclectic mix of paintings done by some extremely well known artist (Van Gogh, Monet, Klimt) as well as some lesser know works. Some of these did suffer a bit by comparison but to me, every picture did have something to offer me and the exhibition as a whole made my heart sing. I would have travelled much further just to see the Klimt on its own!Don't miss this if you find yourself in Edinburgh (it's on till October 17th) and afterwards will travel to Madrid. I took in just this exhibition but there are 3 marvelous ones going on just now. The other ones being by the Danish artist Kobke (in the same venue and you can get a discounted combined ticket) and then Another World; Dali, Margritte, Miro and the Surrealists in the Dean Gallery. I'm going to visit them all and may well be back at the Impressionist Gardens too, just to drink it in some more. I like to take my time! Even today I did take a break half-way around to have a coffee and a cupcake, a work of art in its own right!I fell in love with this picture, although it was definitely not one of the best in the exhibition. But it combined geraniums with a lady sewing in the sunshine. It could have been me had I but lived in 1888-9 when it was painted by the American artist Frederick Childe Hassam.Don't forget to visit the shop, which proved once again my downfall! But in a very good and positive fashion. And anyway what better things to spend your money on than books. The catalogue of Impressionist Gardens is a gem in it's own right.
The gardens in the exhibition had that one advantage you can't count on in a Scottish garden and that is sunshine. Most of them were bathed in it, accompanied by beautiful blue skies. Oh how I can yearn for both! But my garden, like the ones in the exhibition, can offer a wild and riotous collection of plants such as roses and dahlias, and I've added pictures of both to this blog!
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