See us... A bookish Blip

I went to Edinburgh today to have a really good look at the Scottish Gallery's Joan Eardley exhibition before it all gets packed up on Saturday afternoon and heads (red dots n all) to London's Portland Gallery.

It is a wonderful show. I was telling Christina, who works there, that I envied the fact she'd been surrounded by Eardleys for a whole month and she admitted it had been a treat. Every time you look at an Eardley you see something different.

Sometimes I feel I can't breathe when I look at them... Their effect on me is physical, especially with the Catterline paintings.

Even the paintings of street kids, which I often find quite creepy... (like wee black-eyed Midwich Cuckoos) were stunning. Joan often sketched the kids rapidly using pastel on sandpaper and they hum with life.

I was with my art-loving sister-in-law and we went up to the Scottish National Gallery for a mosey in its superb shop, which has a great selection of art books.

So tonight, I thought I'd Blip my bag of books:

* Joan Eardley catalogue
* John Updike's Always Looking (a surprise belated birthday present from sis-in-law)
* George Wyllie Retrospective Catalogue I happened to have in my bag
* Jean Rhys Wide Sargasso Sea (always meant to read it)
*John Burnside's A Summer of Drowning (a present for best pal)
* Morning Glory, a poetic collaboration between Alan Spence & Elizabeth Blackadder
* A revamped Scots Magazine (bought out of curiosity because it has looked the same for eons and I was curious to see how you revamp an institution)

And... Drum roll...

I had a meeting at Creative Scotland's Waverley Gate office and managed to get a swift look at Blipfoto's "See us..." exhibition currently gracing the walls there.

The book (which features the George Wyllie schools' project - yippee!) is free to pick up at Creative Scotland and it's a joyous skip through the rich tapestry that is Blipfoto.

All in all, a good day for art-loving bookworms.