Arts and Crafts with bird motifs

The truth is, I cannot resist an open day, so after coffee and croissants me and Skinnytoes went to see a church with me. Well, technically it was the second thing we had done; the first was feeding swans in the park while the rain was pouring around us. The birds were so surprised, and it was fun.

Mansfield Traquair Centre

The main wall.

The Traquire Centre is only open a few days a year, and I was curious - the entire surface of the church had been decorated by a single person, Phoebe Anne Traquire, an artist in the Scottish Arts and Crafts movement. It took her eight years. And, while she was doing this, she was also raising children, and making a series of tapestries which now hang in the Scottish National Gallery. Hard working woman.

The wise and foolish virgins, and the angel that came to wake them.

The church was built by a community which strongly believed that the end of the world was coming, and soon, so many of the themes in the church have to do with being ready for the Second Coming, like the tale of the wise and foolish virgins.

There are scenes from the Old and New testament, and lots of angels and mythical creatures from the gealic and celtic mythologies. I liked that she placed the biblical figures in landscapes familiar to her, amongst green fields of Scotland. The wild flowers and plants on the paintings are also often very realistic depictions of Scotland's wild flowers.

The truth is the quality of the artwork is very variable. It is not that technically advanced, and at times looks just kitch. But I do love the idea of her coming into this church, every single day, and settling down to a day of painting; going through the moves, letting her mind wonder as her body works, which is perhaps why so many of the angels and cherubs have the faces of her chidren, and her friends. There was something naive and intimate about this, which touched me, maybe because it was so coarse and personal it really touched me.

We walked back along the Water of Leith, very slowly, as there were tons of birds around.

For a good ten minutes we watched a very funny couple, it seemed to be a parent and a young blackbird; the parent kept following at a distance, while the youngling, all puffy and bold, hopped around without a care in the world.

A still unindentified small bird.

We were nearly home, when the heron showed up. Aah, the heron! I remember seeing it for the first time, such a long time ago, when I had just come to Edinburgh! It was not doing very well as we watched it, no strikes, but it was looking stately as ever. I had a long discussion with a colleague at work about her; perhaps we should set up a fanclub.

That long black feather on the back of its head always makes me think of Chinese court officials.

There was one more bird to stalk and admire before we got home, a very bold grey wagtail.

It didn't seem too disturbed, and just kept preening.

We even caught him singing.