My picture gallery contains; photographs of the West End of Glasgow, photographs of Glasgow, and photographs of Scotland.

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December 27th 2000

A few more pictures from last weeks wander round to the Hunterian Gallery. Above you can see the view from just outside the gallery doorway - looking towards Glasgow University. The university is obscured by the trees to a large degree but I thought it was such and unusual view that it was worth taking anyway.

The last few doorways on my walk down University Gardens.

And finally a photo of a fiddler playing in Ashton Lane. It's not the best of photographs - but it was the last one on the spool and I had no more film to put in the camera. I should have asked the musician what his name was - another time perhaps.

I trust you all had a happy Christmas - all the best for the new year.

December 23rd 2000

On Thursday I took a walk round to the Hunterian Gallery and had another look at the paintings by the Scottish Colourists; J. D. Fergusson, Peploe, Hunter and Cadell. I was particularly interested in the picture by J.D. Fergusson showing the view from his window when he lived in Clouston St. The painting includes a view of the Kibble Palace and Glasgow University - as a backdrop to his trademark round and robust female figure. Fergusson and his wife were Westenders for the latter part of their lives - they had returned to Glasgow from London after the second World war.

The staff of the Hunterian, I am sure, already know that they have the wrong information about when J.D. Fergusson died - 1961 not 1931. Probably too expensive to get those big information boards reprinted. You can read more about Fergusson here

For the first time I had a look around the Hunterian Sculpture Gallery - and was interested to see the above Charles Rennie Mackintosh 'sculpture' - rescued from the top of a long demolished Mackintosh building.

After coming out of the Hunterian I walked around University Gardens and took some pictures of the attractive doorways.

And finally a picture of the circular Glasgow University Reading Room - designed by T. Harold Hughes and D. S. R. Waugh and built in 1938-9. As explained in 'Central Glasgow - An Illustrated Architectural Guide' by Charles McKean, David Walker and Frank A. Walker, this building lacks architectural 'context' as it was designed to be the centrepiece of a set of surrounding buildings - that remained unbuilt.

December 10th

Lynne Scobbie, local artist and organiser of regular West End Art exhibitions (including 'Paintings on Railings'), popped in for a visit a few nights ago. One of the things we were talking about was the fact that the Botanic Garden's Visitor Centre doesn't get used as much as it should - and does not get as many visitors as it deserves.

To my mind one of the problems is that people do not know where it is - most people in fact do not know that the Botanic Gardens has a Visitor Centre. So if you have never seen it here is a picture. Next time you are in the gardens continue round to the right past the Kibble Palace and pop in. You might catch one of their excellent Art Shows.

Here is a picture of something else you may or may not know about; the pond in the Botanic Gardens. Look out for the Water Lilies in flower next year in this pond.

Now for a West End Landmark: the police box that sits on the corner of Queen Margaret drive and Great Western Road. There may be a story attached to it but I'm not aware of it. I'm sure it has been there for a while - certainly as long as I can remember. I wonder what they where used for - you couldn't squeeze too many criminals in there. Maybe it was the policeman's equivalent of the bothy.

There is a rumour going round that you can't call yourself a West Ender if you haven't got a real Christmas tree. We bought our tree at the weekend - always a stressfull affair. It's never easy to find one that is not too skinny, not too fat, not too tall, not too scrawny and not 'hingin' all to the one side. We did pretty well - Pat picked out one that's looking handsome.

Here are a couple of shoppers making sure that this one is up to scratch. If that's you in the picture, did you buy it?

Time to put in those winter bulbs.

I'll finish today's diary with a couple of abstract pictures of exotic leaves - just to prove I'm a real photographer ( although if I was a real photographer they would be in black and white). While I'm on the subject of photography there is an amazing exhibition of photographs on show at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery at the moment; wild life photographs by Frans Lanting (information about Frans Lanting can be found here: http://www.lanting.com/home.html). It's well worth a walk round - the photographs are truly stunning.

I have a selection of my photographs for sale in the Gallery Shop.

Comments

which gallery in kelvingrove museum houses the painting by cadell , do you know (it has yellow walls!?
--sue kennedy ( sue_kennedy99 at yahoo dot co dot uk ) from england on 3.9.2001; 17:47:28 Uhr

As my daughter may be studying in Glasgow next year I was really interested to see how beautiful the city is. I loved your photos of the doorways...I have a fondness for doors and gates...one never knows what is beyond them...thank you
--E Richards ( igorsden at idirect dot com ) from on 9.3.2001; 22:04:57 Uhr