Edinburgh teen Eve Williamson has been visiting our venues and latest exhibitions. In her first blog, she shares her experience of the City Art Centre and a visit to the exhibition ‘The Quiet Path’ with a friend. You can find a link to exhibition events at the end of the blog.
During a free week in June, I decided to take a trip to some of the museums and attractions around the Edinburgh city centre. Despite being born here, I grew up outside of Edinburgh so missed out on loads of opportunities to engage with my city. Since I’ve always enjoyed history and loved learning about Scotland’s past in school, the Adam Bruce Thomson exhibit AKA ‘The Quiet Path’ sounded right up my alley. His paintings of not only Edinburgh but also his experiences, such as during WWI, seemed like a good opportunity to learn more about his life and the world he grew up in whilst also getting to see some beautiful artwork. So, with that in mind, I set off to the City Art Centre and met up with Anna - my friend who knows much more about art than I do - to find out more.
Adam Bruce Thomson
Adam Bruce Thomson OBE, RSA, PRSW was born in 1885 and died in 1976 at 91 and he is - in my opinion - incredibly underrated. He was clearly a remarkable artist, not just in terms of talent, but in his dedication to his craft and his contributions to other budding artists through his mentorship at the College. During his lifetime, Thomson studied art, lived through two world wars, taught at Edinburgh College for decades, and created a family. The interesting thing about Thomson’s artwork is that through his creations, he ends up telling us a lot about his life and experiences. As you begin looking through his artwork, you see creations he made in his 20s as he sampled techniques and started his journey as an artist. These paintings then take a turn as World War One blends into quicker and more rough pieces and his use of materials switches before becoming more domestic once again as he settled down in Edinburgh and began to rebuild.
Personally, my favourite era of Thomson’s work was his series of paintings of Edinburgh cityscapes, painted in the 1930s. It produced some of his most acclaimed works and, in my opinion, for good reason. His paintings are beautiful, in part due to Edinburgh’s lovely vistas, but also the way he painted them. The oil painting ‘North Bridge and Salisbury Crags, Edinburgh, from the North West’ was highlighted in the exhibit and was a particular favourite of mine.
The Techniques
When walking around the exhibition, Thomson’s talent was fairly obvious to me. Despite my limited knowledge of art, it was beyond cool to see such a variety of techniques and strategies on display. At every painting we arrived at, my friend excitedly turned to me and explained how whatever he’d done was achieved and how skilfully he’d done it. As someone who creates tons of art, her perspective was super interesting for me to hear so I thought I’d ask Anna to say something here so you could hear it from someone more eloquent than I (and from someone who has more than a crumb of artistic experience):
"Being interested in the more artistic and historical aspects of the exhibition, I found myself most interested in the broad and varied use of technique prevalent in the artworks. Due to the visible brush strokes and thick paint application, it was clear which techniques Thomson used and how I could relate those with my own experiences with paint. As well as this, the reflection of detail in his works were symbolically and literally representative of the time they were painted, for example, rough and dramatic ink and prints for the scenes of war, and softly blended relaxing compositions of family and calm painted in the years after. As a result, there was a strong and powerful sense of emotion captured within the exhibit, and I felt as a whole it was an amazing experience and worth visiting."
The experience
Overall, I had a really great time at the exhibit (not just because I got cake from Mimi’s next door just afterwards) and I actually enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. One thing that doesn’t get across in discussions of history or art techniques was how nice the interior design of the building was or how great we found the layout of the exhibit itself. Everything flowed really nicely and considering it was free admission, if you have 45 minutes or so to spare and you’re in town, I highly recommend checking it out! My friend and I loved it so much that we - alongside hundreds of people from all over the world - left a little note in the guidebook before we left.
Find out more about events associated with The Quiet Path here.