Buses (and other traffic) now running in both directions on Leith Walk.  Hoorah!

Admittedly not the whole length of it and not all buses but it's a step further along the road to the completion of the tram extension.  The Shrubhill bus-stop on my side re-opened a few weeks ago and now its fellow on the other side has done so.  For the first time in some years I can get a bus from town to my door.

So far only the number 11, but that came in very handy when I returned from the Vettriano exhibition in Kirkcaldy the other day.  The train I was on stopped at South Gyle and it was announced that we were being held there while an "incident" at Waverley was sorted out.  We only stayed a few minutes but when we got going we were told that because of said "incident" the train would terminate at Haymarket.  I love that expression.

This was my chance to enjoy the bus-stop.  I caught the tram from Haymarket to St Andrew Square, nipped over to George St. and immediately onto an 11 that deposited me at Shrubhill.  

When the Macdonald Rd. tramstop opens next year Haymarket will become my arrival station of choice coming from the west.

The Vettriano exhibition was most interesting in its inclusion of paintings he produced under his birth name of Jack Hoggan.  These were almost all either copies or closely modelled on existing works by other artists.  That's all part of the learning process especially for a self-taught painter. They struck me as very well done, in particular a fine self-portrait of Rembrant and a work called Beach Concert whose original has not been traced.

The 1988 success of this painting, The White Slip, this photo of which I've obtained from www.artnet.com and which was not a copy of anything seems to be what convinced him to go all out for art and develop a style of his own.  There are hints of it here.  It's interesting to compare it with the picture below (taken from an exhibition site) also called The White Slip.  I haven't yet found when that was painted but it's clearly well after his personal style and preferred subject matter had bedded in.

The following year his application for a place on a Fine Art MSc was rejected but that has not held him back, certainly if commercial success is your measure.  Critics and the art establishment have been harsh on him but in 2011 a self-portrait went on display in the Portrait Gallery.

Having two prints and five fridge magnets of his work you might think I'm a devotee but the pleasure I take in his work tends to tail off when I see too much of that brooding darkness.

Go to Kirkcaldy though. The exhibition is on till October and if you don't like it too much then take in the roomfull of McTaggarts and Peploes from the gallery's permanent collection.

If you want a opinion other than mine try The Times.