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More gallery picks

Anthony Gormley Sculpture
And so it rains in Edinburgh... Dr Fred and cronies went climbing which is probably why it rained.  I went to the Scottish National Museum of Modern Art which had quite a pleasant collection - a few odd bits and pieces including a Peter Doig, Anthony Gormley and a nice Hockey - the grounds are nice and have a good selection of interesting sculpture.  The huge steel sculpture of Vulcan by Eduardo Paolozzi in the cafe was very impressive. 
the vulcan

I walked back into town through more impressive Edinburgh streets lined with amazing four and five storey high terraces and then the rain arrived so I decided to have a wander around the Scottish National Gallery which was full of quite marvellous overblown Renaissance and Dutch/Flemish art.
        
Much of it was early religious iconic based - and then a lot of quite wonderful Italian Renaissance art - not exactly the kind of stuff I'd hang in the house - although I probably wouldn't turn down one of the amazing Raphael's or Titians... come to think of it they would look superbly out of place in my kitchen... alas its not to be. I really like the flamboyant over the top colours and imagery and considering some of these pictures were painted in the sixteenth century and some even earlier - the colours are glorious and the condition of the paintings excellent.. I wonder how much modern art will stand the test of time.
Waller hugh Patton - Entrance to the Cuirain

Alongside the very old masters on show were one or two more recent paintings - one in particular caught my eye.  It was painted in about 1870 by Waller Hugh Patton called ''Entrance to the Cuirain''  - depicting the Cuirain  (now spelled Quirain) on the Isle of Skye looking just as we saw it earlier this year... moody and atmospheric.... although much less snow on the painting.

By this time I had a serious case of 'museum leg' so time to jump on the number 10 and head back to base.

Next time I go up to Edinburgh I'm going to look in the smaller less feted galleries and try and track down some of the local contemporary artwork that pops up on my Instagram or Facebook, 

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