Visual art, Painting & drawing

Five reason to love... David Shrigley

The 2013 Turner judges praise his ‘macabre intelligence and infinite jest’ - here's why we love him

He’s a homeboy at heart In an interview with The List in 2010, Shrigley spoke of his love of the Dear Green Place: ‘I moved to Glasgow as a teenager, and I’ve lived here more than half my life now. I don’t consider Leicester, where I’m originally from…

Picture gallery - Animation Sketchbooks by Laura Heit

The art book showcases the in-progress ideas from some of the world's most inventive animators

Creating any piece of animation requires a huge amount of work, most of which never finds its way before an audience. Academic and artist Laura Heit aims to change this by presenting the sketches of over 50 contemporary animation luminaries in her new…

David Batchelor's Flatlands highlights the artist's painted and drawn pieces

Show of artist's two-dimensional work puts colour centre stage

Renowned for many years for his sculptures using lightboxes and pieces of reclaimed detritus from city streets, the Dundee-born, London-based David Batchelor didn’t show his drawings and paintings in public until a show at Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice…

Tickling Jock

Billy Connolly, Ronnie Corbett and Stanley Baxter feature in this comedic portrait exhibition

It would be thoroughly glaikit for anyone to criticise Tickling Jock for not including much in the way of the modern Scottish comedian. For this is very much a portrait of the way our nation’s funny men and witty women once were: knee-deep in the music…

John Bellany: A Passion for Life

Biographical exhibition charting the life of the great Scottish painter

The curation of this welcome large-scale retrospective exhibition of the Scottish painter John Bellany’s work must have been, in one sense, an easy task. Lending itself to far more than merely a dry recollection of influences and periods of note…

Andrew Kerr: Delmess was Charged

An easy-to-like exhibition of the Glasgow-based artists paper-based works

It is hard not to like these acrylic works on paper. Unframed and pinned to the white wall they sit comfortably, owning the space, yet not too precious. Pigments in a muted tonal range have been moved around on the small-scale canvas in an automative…

Laura Aldridge: Things Held Inside / The New Sea

Experiments in fabric imbued with a sense of unfulfillment

Like protest banners or sails on ships, a range of fabrics have been sewn and stitched together, screenprinted and hand painted. Stretched across planted poles and anchored down with heavy concrete, their seeming functionality – of protest placards…

Donald Judd: Drawings 1963-93

It’s hard to decide how this display of work by the late American sculptor Donald Judd should be approached. As an insight into the working practice of one of the most celebrated minimalist designers of the 20th century, an artist whose hard-edged and…

Still Life: An Audience With Henrietta Moraes

Immersive monologue-cum-life-drawing-class

It’s pretty disconcerting being addressed by a naked, middle-aged woman, but you soon get used to it. And when she invites you to draw her body, you might feel self-conscious at first – but as writer and actor Sue MacLaine’s life drawing-cum-monologue…

George Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour

Comprehensive survey of the work of Rothesay-born colourist

More than 70 paintings and prints by the least known of the four Scottish colourists not only demonstrate the breadth of Hunter’s painting practice and his constantly changing approach and style, but also reveal the influences on the Rothesay-born…

Philip Guston (1913-1980): Late Paintings

Late work by renowned US artist in Scotland for the first time

Continuing its growing tradition of presenting some of the greats of 20th century art in striking surroundings, this festival Inverleith House plays host to Canadian painter Philip Guston, a contemporary of Pollock and De Kooning in 1950s New York. The…

Major Picasso show as part of 2012 Edinburgh Art Festival

Enduring appeal of artist considered greatest of the 20th century

A major new exhibition coming to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art explores Picasso's enduring legacy and the British artists he inspired. But why did the UK take so long to get with Pablo’s programme?

Central Station: Anna Gibb

The architecture student is inspired by old maps and city panoramas

Anna Gibb has been drawing by hand since her final year at university studying architecture. Her project involved research into Edinburgh’s old town and ignited in her an obsession with city grain and, in particular, cityscape and skyline. Although…

Video: animated street art at Newhaven

Edinburgh artist Spaceboy animates a 150 metre-long mural along fishmarket shutters

Edinburgh artist Mike Inglis, aka Spaceboy, has collaborated with Red Stripe on transforming the shutters of Newhaven fishmarket into a Jamaica-inspired animation. The first cut of the video can be seen below. Spaceboy pasted his illustrations…

Cornish visual artist Kurt Jackson discusses his history and working practices

Artbeat Kurt Jackson What was the first exhibition you went to see? Being the son of two artists meant that I was brought up visiting numerous exhibitions, both of their contemporaries and public shows. However, there was an exhibition in 1985 at…

Pádraig Timoney – Shepard Tone

Deceptive and frustrating mixed media show with no clear theme

Shepard Tone offers an eclectic mix of painting, photography and mixed media wall-based work, seemingly with little in common. The title describes an auditory illusion of continually descending or ascending pitch. As expected, the exhibition is…

Warm up this winter with free art in Edinburgh

Now the party season is over and the festivities long gone, you and your wallet could probably do with a little TLC. Luckily the National Galleries of Scotland have a full programme of free exhibitions and events during January, to help nourish the mind…

Alasdair Gray: City Recorder

Fantastic exhibition of drawings chronicling Glasgow's past

For one year in 1977, at a time when many of Glasgow’s famous old industries were closing, Alasdair Gray was commissioned to capture the life of the city in ink, watercolour, acrylic and oil on paper. Glasgow’s local history museum, the People’s Palace…

Alison Watt – Hiding in Full View

The artist's paintings are good, but suffer in comparison to the photography of Francesca Woodman

‘All rooms will hide you, if you stand just so – ghosts know this, that’s really all they know,’ declares one of the poems by Don Paterson (a credited collaborator in this show), which are printed in fluid lower case type just below eye level on the…

Andrew Kerr – So Ensconced

Over 70 new paintings in this debut solo exhibition from the Glasgow-based artist

Absence makes the heart grow fonder in Andrew Kerr’s first major solo show in Scotland. Almost 70 new paintings discreetly dominate both floors, only interrupted by the odd smattering of drawings or sculptural intervention. Most of the mainly…

The Scottish Colourists series: FCB Cadell

Retrospective of the early 20th century colourist's work displays a life-long development of talent

To modern eyes this retrospective of the work of early 20th century Edinburgh colourist FCB Cadell might appear a little staid, a procession of chintzy New Town interiors and still life compositions involving china crockery and the distinctive white…

Hiding in Full View - Alison Watt interview

The painter discusses her latest exhibition, a response to American photographer Francesca Woodman

What first made you want to be a painter? My father is a painter, so the idea of looking at and making paintings has always been a very normal and natural activity for me. The place I felt most at home as a child was in my father’s studio. It seemed to…

Ciara Phillips: The only rule is work

Exhibition the result of a three-month residency at Kendall Koppe, inspired by Sister Corita Kent

‘The only rule is work’ is one of ten accommodating rules for students and teachers developed by artist and educator Sister Corita Kent. Ciara Phillips’ exhibition is the result of her three-month residency in the gallery space where she shared a…

Central Station: Charlie Anderson

Provocative rising artist with an eye on contemporary culture

Since graduating in 2009, Charlie Anderson has pissed off art collectors, curators, graffiti writers, three world-renowned artists, been threatened by a leading London gallerist, and has been punched in the face by an Edinburgh artist. He has also won…

Lucy Roscoe - The Beach House

Collection of sea-themed prints and paper sculptures in convivial deli setting

Edinburgh-based artist-illustrator and founder of the Book Tree Press, Lucy Roscoe, brings a body of new work to Edinburgh’s Broughton Deli. The Beach House is the tenth in a specially curated series by Nicola Brooks and fills the space with delicate…