Art, Afternoon Tea, More Art

Each of our classes at Stirling included a required excursion.  My favorite was for our Art of Psychology class.  We spent a day in Edinburgh looking at art galleries.  Before lunch we looked at national galleries, after we looked at commercial galleries.  First we went to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.  The flowing landscape sculpture by Charles Jencks is from the Modern Art Gallery.  So is the painting of the Catamaran.  That painting was part of a series studying how light changes around the sailboat throughout the day.  The artists name has slipped my mind, but I really enjoyed the series.  We went to the Scottish National Gallery next and had lunch in the Princes Street Gardens.  After lunch went to two commercial galleries: The Open Eye Gallery and the Scottish Gallery.  Below are some of my favorites:

Matthew Chambers

Jennifer Watt

Lowri Davies

Takeshi Yasuda

Our final destination was the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.  We had an exquisite afternoon tea provided for us, which is pictured above.  The best Tea Time Treat was Frozen Lemon Posset.  I want to try and make it when I get home!  With very full stomachs, we explored the Portrait Gallery.  I was very inspired by the John Byrne Exhibit.  The self portrait that is on the Sitting Ducks poster is just amazing.  Zach pointed it out to me in the gallery.  Unfortunately they don't sell prints of it (that I could find).  He also had some wonderful paintings in the same style of this Tilda Swinton portrait, which were great.  What an art filled day!

On another note, these books were resources for Psychology of Art.  I did't have time to read them while I was at the University, but they look really interesting!  Maybe I'll get them from the library at home:  Seven Days in the Art World, Eye and Brain, Vision and Art.

--grace