What's On

Chris Watkins is returning to the Garden for an exhibition of his very special pottery alongside artist and art educator, Siri France. 

Chris Watkins is an Edinburgh based potter, painter and Qigong teacher. Having studied art and architecture at Kingston College of Art and later Edinburgh College of Art and Architecture, Chris started his first pottery in Scotland in 1970. He is a member of the Scottish Potters Association and has pieces in galleries and exhibitions throughout Scotland.

Siri France’s work is mainly in painting and drawing and combines careful observation with expressive use of materials. She has a BA in fine art from Newcastle Polytechnic and the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also has a post graduate diploma in art therapy from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. As well as work in and out of the studio, Siri has 20 years’ experience teaching art both privately and with local art schools, Birchwood art studio and Edinburgh Drawing School.

Join Wilma Patrizio and her colleague Emma, of Sound Bath Edinburgh, for an afternoon of relaxation, reflection and connection. This informal journey will begin with Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) when you will connect deeply with the essence of the Garden using all of your senses. You will use Pranayama breathing techniques to awaken, ground and relax both body and mind, and end with a beautiful sound bath to ground and balance your energy.

There will be time to connect, reflect, share or journal with herbal tea and homemade cake and you will receive a gift bag to take home to continue your selfcare journey.

Click on the QR code for full details or contact Wilma for more information on 07984 146164 or by email.

A painting and photography exhibition with four artists.

Damian Callan is a figurative painter based in Edinburgh. His subject is the moving figure, drawn and painted in strong tonal contrasts. 

He runs drawing and painting classes for adults and art classes for children from his studio at Silvan House, opposite Edinburgh Zoo. He is the author of two books, Paint Like Degas and Paint Like Renoir, and his work has been widely exhibited across the UK. 

Eiko Yamashita is a printmaker and painter based in Edinburgh. She graduated with MA Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Arts in 2002 and moved to Scotland the following year. She is a member of Edinburgh Printmakers and Society of Scottish Artists.

Her recent works are about nature and nature worship, inspired by Hokusai and other 18-19th century Japanese artists who depicted hills, lakes and woods as objects of worship. These ideas are from Japanese Shinto, animism which deeply influenced Japanese culture and philosophy. Another theme is gravity. She has been creating prints and paintings of the human body in air and water, symbolizing the conflicted feelings of restraint & stability, freedom & uncertainty, anxiety & healing.

Komachi Goto’s artistic work focuses mainly on painting and drawing subjects that capture her curiosity. She often explores the hidden stories, histories, and emotional backgrounds behind the people or scenes she depicts. Her art reflects a strong interest in narrative and the unseen context surrounding everyday life.

Patrick Poon takes a daily walk with his camera in Edinburgh’s green spaces, coastline and beyond. He is sometimes lucky enough to find the extraordinary in the everyday. Patrick delights in collecting and sharing these serendipitous images, hoping they convey the quiet wonder felt when he captured them.

In this exhibition, the work of three local artists - two painters and one ceramicist - engages the viewer with echoes of nature and the senses.

Pat Paige is an Edinburgh based artist. She finds inspiration when working outside in nature and is concerned with expressing a particular moment and place with its associated feelings and memories. Her current work explores the colour, rhythms and patterns of fallen blossom in Starbank Park at Newhaven. Quick colour sketches outdoors are developed into oil paintings in her studio to produce more abstract responses to the subject.

Fiona Morris’ work has emerged from her fascination with the intricate and flowing organic forms in found objects from the seashore and the Borders countryside around her: shells, seaweed, leaves and seed heads. Beginning with close observation drawings, she uses hand building techniques - pinching, coiling and slabbing - and a variety of clays to create decorative and/or functional pieces in 3D and relief. Colour is added with washes of underglaze, with transparent gloss to emphasise the forms and textures she’s particularly interested in.

Kate Gray’s current body of work is a visceral and immediate response to a variety of pieces of music. The ‘flow’ state, where the painting ‘takes over’, means that the use of colour and form are unplanned, leaving each piece open to individual interpretation.

> There will be an opportunity to meet all three artists on Saturday 25th July, from 2pm to 4pm. All welcome!