Edinburgh Drill Hall

Yesterday was the final day of the project to paint the impressions of the Edinburgh Drill Hall off Leith Walk.



We started three Fridays ago with spending the day sketching and making notes on how to tackle the next two Fridays painting.

What struck me most about the venue was the enormous space everywhere. The floor space was vast and the roof, made of girders with large areas of light coming in, was almost too overwhelming to take in.
The cafe, was a totally different feel. Lots of brightly coloured tablecloths and red chairs, lots of people and bunched up together by the entrance.
The other thing that struck me was the light coming in from the door, compared to the darkness immediately between the entrance and the cafe.

Jane and Ginny having coffee. It was cold and so they were wrapped up and huddled around their hot drinks.

Getting the light on the balcony area was important and the yellow ochre of the doors compared to the underneath area. The lighting was quite extreme, from the light from above to the the dark at the entrance.

What struck me was the idea of the sky being very important as part of the building as well as the amount of floor space. The roof and the sky were one. Without the roof, the sky would not be seen so intently.

This led to the idea of doing three paintings as a triptych. Heaven, Earth and Humanity.

These were the first attempts the following week. 

I wanted to get down the main structure and see how they would fit together.

 Third Friday. Final paintings..


This was about bringing the paintings to a conclusion and I decided to make the space of the floor the feature but instead of space, I concentrated on the reflections and made the lower area more structured. A hint of the metal work of the roof and sky to show the light coming in.

 What impressed me most was the feeling of the metal structure towering over my head.The enormity of space and light was the reason to show the metal work darker at the top of the painting and melting into the building.

The idea of heaven became more about the structure of the roof.

 The two figures of our tutors having coffee, Ginny's striped skirt and the difference between Jane's complexion ( she is Greek) and Ginny's fairness, the splotches of red and acid green of tablecloths, all seemed to sum up the effect of people between the two vast spaces.

All three paintings have in common the door which is the brightest yet smallest part of the paintings. The entrance and connection which makes the whole experience possible.