- 01 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Cushion details from a shop window
An Edinburgh visit almost always includes time in the Royal Botanic Garden.. On this day in 2022 whilst walking there from Princes Street I passed an antique shop displaying some fine pieces including these cushions and a rug set down close to the window glass . Their related colours, patterns and textures attracted.
- 02 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Outdoor paving in the Royal Botanic Garden
The Garden is planted to geographical themes and its eastern entrance leads almost immediately to glasshouses and a magnificent Victorian palm house (EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 4 image). Many of its paths are mundane asphalt but there are some using more visually appealing materials like these bricks, their sheen and kiln fired colour enhanced by a brief rain shower.
- 03 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Pathway decking in the Royal Botanic Garden
The nearby geometric shapes and patterns in an area of timber decking were bold but I preferred the richer colourways of the brick herringbone design in the previous image.
- 04 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Aeolian Harp Pavilion detail: Royal Botanic Garden
A 200 year old Wych Elm infected by disease was felled in the Garden in 2003. From its timbers a decade later designer-maker Mark Norris competed a 39 string Aeolian Harp housed in an open framed hexagonal glass roofed structure topped by a brass cupola. Metal railings and an inlaid elm and ash floor completed the design. Here, mid-day sunlight focussed by an overarching leaf canopy illuminates the grain patterns on the instrument.
- 05 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Façade detail in Stockbridge
The Royal Botanic Garden is close to the Water of Leith as it flows eastwards to the sea, its bankside footpath being a pleasant walk to the two Modern Art Galleries on Bedford Road to the west. It passes through Stockbridge which has a village feel containing some elegant architecture and a variety of small shops. The contrasts of shape, pattern, colour and the weathered paint in this public house frontage appealed in this and the following image..
- 06 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Façade detail in Stockbridge
The sharp contrast between the almost pristine white of the “10” and the weathered timber paint added a further element to the composition.
- 07 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Lettering, sunshine and shadows in Stockbridge
I liked the combination of painted lettering on the widow glass and its shadow cast across the framed landscape painting beyond.
- 08 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | A Stockbridge door
The fading paint on the woodwork and the dark tones of its etched glass contrast those in the previous image. This barbershop is one not photographed some time ago when I collected images for the “Edinburgh Bookshops and Barbers” gallery.
- 09 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Colour, light and shade on the RSA
This light and shade image came from the Royal Scottish Academy building and included a fragment from a poster for their “A Taste of Impressionism” show. The soft morning light on much of the composition and its created shadows extended a short series begun in past years.
- 10 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | A small area detail from the entrance door to the SNGMA 1
The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (One) is housed in the former John Watson’s School designed in the Greek Revival Style by William Burn in 1825. Opened in 1984 it replaced the Gallery’s first home in Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Garden. This is a corner detail from the fanlight and entrance doors set into the structure’s portico.
- 11 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Fading lettering on a building in the Old Town
The building was painted light blue excepting this panel of faded lettering on the underlying stone. It was good to see that successive owners had thought it worth preserving a detail from an earlier time and purpose.
- 12 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | A perspective from a Stockbridge shop front
This and Image 07 are from the same Stockbridge shop. I liked the way in which the two glazing bars created three compositions within the square format and the emphatic blue of the timber’s paint.
- 13 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | A Cockburn street perspective
A similar composition but with unwelcome graffiti was shot in another colourway.
- 14 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | A shopfront detail in Cockburn Street
The contrast of artificial flowers and magenta neon appealed. Such floral displays seem quite popular: one of the most luxuriant I’ve seen covered much of a lower façade in nearby Market Street.
- 15 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | A window detail with café machine
This finely constructed machine was set inside a café I’d have gone inside had I not just finished a coffee elsewhere.
- 16 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Well travelled leather luggage in another window
The clothing styles in this shop echoed that of the substantial and well preserved leather luggage. All seemed more appropriate to the time of more leisurely travel by comfortable car with driver, by train or by ship. Reflections and the wide range of light levels introduced a sense of abstraction to the composition.
- 17 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | A doorway graphic in blue on black
This soft edged spray graphic was set into a deep and narrow black painted door recess. It seemed such a contrast with the other more complex images I’d made earlier. I’d like to have added more of it but a combination of bright directional light and a rather longer than ideal lens were restrictions. The phosphorescent blue on black was a draw.
- 18 EDINBURGH FRAGMENTS 5 | Graffiti with a bottle still-life in the Old Town
Largely named Closes, a series of steep, narrow stairs and pavements link the Royal Mile leading east from the Castle to the Holyrood Palace with lower ground along to north and south. This spray painting was in the Fleshmarket Close, once part of the city’s meat trading area in earlier times, which cuts across Cockburh Street on its descent to Market Street. Morning sunshine illuminated this deep doorway in contrast to the sober unpainted stonework lower down.