Doors open day 2: Mansfield Church murals

Some venues taking place in Open Doors Edinburgh are welcoming visitors for a second day today. This afternoon I wandered along to the restored Mansfield Church (a shabby Fringe venue in the 1990s) to see how easy it would be to blip the Phoebe Anna Traquair murals.

I could have done with better lighting and some scaffolding to get closer to the murals, but I am quite pleased with this shot because it captures some of the features that make this art work so interesting. Traquair spent a lot of time in the Borders, and there is evidence of this in her pictures: in this shot you can make out the railway viaduct over the River Tweed at Gattonside - check the diamond panel (of the annunciation, I think). She is also known for using her children as models, and I like to think that the cherubs here are based on her own family members. The restorers didn't touch some parts of the artwork to leave a record of the "before" and "after" of the restoration. You can see this in the dark border at the bottom of the shot.