Jan Patience: A chance to savour the genius of Turner in Edinburgh

It is no accident that the Turner Prize, a contentious art accolade if ever there was one, is named after the painter JMW Turner.

When this son of a Covent Garden barber and wig maker was finding his way as an artist at the start of the 19th Century, the art of watercolour painting was considered cutting-edge.

Turner was a pioneer of the medium and was constantly experimenting.

More than two centuries later, it’s hard to find more sublime examples of the art of painting landscapes in watercolour than Turner’s vistas from tours of Europe to sketches of Scottish beauty spots.

Every January, a collection of 38 Turner watercolours is brought out of storage and put on display in the Scottish National Gallery on The Mound in Edinburgh.

The Turners were gifted to the nation in 1899 by art collector Henry Vaughan with the stipulation the paintings be exhibited to the public “all at one time, free of charge, during the month of January”. Vaughan’s reasoning was that in January, in Scotland, with minimal hours of daylight, the delicate watercolours would not fade when displayed. The rest of the year, they are housed in a slotted wooden cabinet in the Gallery’s Prints and Study Drawing Room.

More than 200 years after they were painted, Turner’s genius in painting wind, weather and landscapes will catch you like a blast of January wind. The watercolours range from early topographical wash drawings, copied from works in the collection of his mentor, Dr Thomas Munro, through to his subtle and meticulous watercolours of the 1790s.

But it’s his late works that make my head spin, especially his Venetian views of 1840. Works like The Piazzetta and Venice From The Laguna capture the explosive skies of late summer Adriatic storms.

Catch these sublime watercolours as the low midwinter light keeps Turner’s fleeting skies and shadows firmly in check.

Last year saw the 100th anniversary of the birth of Anglo-Scottish painter Joan Eardley marked by exhibitions and events across Scotland. And there are still Eardley 100 exhibitions to catch.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery’s Eardley exhibition runs until the end of February. It features work from Perth’s permanent collection, together with work on loan from the National Galleries of Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, the Fleming Collection and the University of Dundee.