Edinburgh Festival Guide

Listings: Painting & drawing

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Alberto Morrocco: Drawing on Life

This exhibition of works by Alberto Morrocco OBE (1917 – 1998) spans the artist’s entire career, from early student drawings and sculptures to paintings and graphics produced in his final years. Many of the works included are being shown for the first time in public and the sheer range of pieces – from classical…

Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh

Mon 12 Aug

Free / 0131 557 1020

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00

Tue 13 Aug

Free / 0131 557 1020

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00

Wed 14 Aug

Free / 0131 557 1020

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00
…and 18 more dates

The Artistic Content of Leonardo's Anatomical Work

Leonardo’s early anatomical studies were intended to help his work as a painter, but his researches took on a life of their own, becoming the most important strand of his scientific work. Exhibition curator Martin Clayton examines the relationship between these two major aspects of Leonardo’s activity.

The Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh

Mon 12 Aug

£10 (£8) / 0131 473 2000

Dressed to Kill: Fashion, Costume and Dress in Scottish Art

Dressed to Kill showcases how Scottish artists have captured fashion, costume and dress over the years, from the late 17th century to the present day. The exhibition includes portrayals of a whole range of different types of costume, from mundane everyday working clothes to the most elaborate fashionable dress. There is…

City Art Centre, Edinburgh

Sat 15 Jun

Free / 0131 529 3993

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 17:00

Sun 16 Jun

Free / 0131 529 3993

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 12:00 – 17:00

Mon 17 Jun

Free / 0131 529 3993

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 17:00
…and 104 more dates

Elizabeth Blackadder: Works on Paper

Displaying new works on paper, this is the first exhibition of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder’s work since the retrospective at The National Galleries of Scotland in 2010, and includes delicate studies of leaves, fruit and other organic objects.

The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

Fri 2 Aug

Free / 0131 558 1200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00

Sat 3 Aug

Free / 0131 558 1200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 16:00

Mon 5 Aug

Free / 0131 558 1200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00
…and 26 more dates

Exhibition Preview: This Land

The opening of This Land, which presents a beautifully alternative view of the Scottish landscape through works by artists with a diverse range of practices, including Henry Coombes, Andy Holden, Hannah Imlach, Michael Reisch and Iain Sarjeant. Initially located for the festival beside the City Art Centre, The…

Travelling Gallery, Edinburgh

Thu 22 Aug

Free / 0131 529 3930

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 17:30 – 19:30
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Gabriel Orozco

Major exhibition of work by the Mexican artist, taking his painting The Eye of Go as a starting point, and featuring a series of large works on acetate which have never before been exhibited. Orozco is concerned not so much with what art should be but why it exists at all, and his practice never stands still – he'll cite…

Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh

Thu 1 Aug

Free / 0131 225 2383

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 11:00 – 18:00

Fri 2 Aug

Free / 0131 225 2383

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 11:00 – 18:00

Sat 3 Aug

Free / 0131 225 2383

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 11:00 – 18:00
…and 78 more dates

James Lumsden: Chromatic Visions

Specially commissioned for the festival, this exhibition presents Edinburgh based artist James Lumsden's highly personal, enigmatic abstract paintings. Process driven, each work reveals its own rhythms, movement and atmosphere, evoked by the play of light and colour through the depth of the painted surface. Built from…

Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh

Tue 20 Aug

Free / 0131 229 8157

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 14:00 – 17:00

Wed 21 Aug

Free / 0131 229 8157

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 14:00 – 17:00

Thu 22 Aug

Free / 0131 229 8157

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 14:00 – 17:00
…and 7 more dates

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man

He is renowned as one of the finest artists of the Renaissance – but Leonardo da Vinci was also one of the greatest anatomists the world has ever seen. Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man explores the artist’s groundbreaking work in anatomy. His studies of the human body are presented alongside state-of-the-art modern…

The Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh

Fri 9 Aug

£5.70–£6.25 (£3.15) / 0131 473 2000

Sat 10 Aug

£5.70–£6.25 (£3.15) / 0131 473 2000

Sun 11 Aug

£5.70–£6.25 (£3.15) / 0131 473 2000

…and 21 more dates

Paul Reid: New Paintings

The poetic narratives of Ovid have inspired painters since the Renaissance, but the paintings of Paul Reid uniquely focus on incidental details and precursory moments from these classical myths, creating curious, enigmatic and sometimes disquieting images. The technical skill and allusions to classicism in Reid’s…

The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

Fri 2 Aug

Free / 0131 558 1200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00

Sat 3 Aug

Free / 0131 558 1200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 16:00

Mon 5 Aug

Free / 0131 558 1200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00
…and 26 more dates

The Scottishness of Art over Two Centuries

In ten works, this exhibition concisely explores the competing romanticism, rationalism and realism of Scottish art from 1750–1970. If Walter Scott created a literary idea of Scotland as the site of the romantic 'other', painters sought the images that would do the same for visual art. The exhibition begins with…

Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh

Fri 5 Jul

Free / 0131 557 4050

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00

Sat 6 Jul

Free / 0131 557 4050

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 11:00 – 16:00

Mon 8 Jul

Free / 0131 557 4050

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 18:00
…and 47 more dates

This Land

This Land presents a beautifully alternative view of the Scottish landscape through works by artists with a diverse range of practices, including Henry Coombes, Andy Holden, Hannah Imlach, Michael Reisch and Iain Sarjeant. Initially located for the festival beside the City Art Centre, The Travelling Gallery…

Travelling Gallery, Edinburgh

Fri 23 Aug

Free / 0131 529 3930

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 11:00 – 18:00

Sat 24 Aug

Free / 0131 529 3930

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 11:00 – 18:00

Tue 27 Aug

Free / 0131 529 3930

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 11:00 – 18:00
…and 3 more dates

Witches and Wicked Bodies

Witches: if they weigh the same as a duck, does that mean they're made of wood? Find out how myths, fears and notions about witches have been communicated in the visual media in this major new exhibition of depictions of witches and witchcraft over the past 500 years, featuring artists from Dürer, Goya and Blake to Paula…

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two, Edinburgh

Sat 27 Jul

£7 (£5) / 0131 624 6200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 17:00

Sun 28 Jul

£7 (£5) / 0131 624 6200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 17:00

Mon 29 Jul

£7 (£5) / 0131 624 6200

Part of Edinburgh Art Festival.

  • 10:00 – 17:00
…and 97 more dates