March 2020

An Artisan Day Out at Arthur's Seat! - Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing at The Queen's Gallery and Holyrood Park

 

By Emily 

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The thing that I really love about being in this group is that there is no pressure! You don't need to be able to draw! I was/am a complete beginner and I wouldn't miss this group for anything now. We had a wonderful arty day out just before lockdown, at The Queen's Gallery and Arthur's Seat, (Edinburgh's long extinct volcano site).

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Before seeing the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, we were treated to lovely tea and coffee with a choice of cakes at Holyrood Palace's Cafe At The Palace - ushered to our seats and served like kings and queens. After copious amounts of coffee and cakes we saw the amazing da Vinci exhibition which gave insight into his amazing life, art and drawings.  

 

Afterwards, we met a Historic Environment Scotland Park Ranger, who came with us to our 'arty' spot and gave us a run down of some of the history of Arthur's Seat and Holyrood park. She came equipped with laminated photos of times gone by and some stories with the images. 

 

We were treated to a rather large picnic/outdoor lunch which was wonderful, especially sitting outside among nature and the lovely sights. Nuts, crisps, sandwiches, strawberries, chocolate, vegetable snacks, all consumed in preparation for our art activity. A large sheet of paper roughly 8ft long was placed on the grass for everyone to put down their own interpretation of what we could see before our eyes. We had paint, charcoals, pencils etc. We collectively made a panorama of Edinburgh's favourite hill.  Everything was an absolute delight and we snapped some photos to remember the occasion!

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