Royal Mile Edinburgh
Buy Tolbooth Edinburgh Prints Royal Mile, all signed and numbered limited edition.
Tall, dark threatening clouds aid the overall composition of this painting of The Tolbooth Canongate Edinburgh.
Several of my paintings of Edinburgh feature different parts of the well trodden Royal Mile. The Tolbooth Edinburgh Prints can be found on Canongate Tobooth.
The Royal Mile is captivating because it is full of fascinating architecture. The Tolbooth was built in 1591 and it was here that all the tolls or public dues were collected. The Tolbooth also served as a council house, court room and a prison. The impressive clock that protrudes from its wall is dated 1820.
Prints of Edinburgh including The Toolbooth and Princes Street.
Paintings of Edinburgh
I remember being on the Royal Mile on a cold January afternoon. The quickening bursts of sunlight caught the old stone architecture causing the buildings be shrouded in shadows. The Tolbooth Edinburgh grabbed my attention so I decided to make it the subject of my next painting.
I began with a background wash of Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Lemon to set the mood. The sky couldn’t be too simple, so I thought it through very carefully. I painted a heavy cloud running from top left, allowing it to flow down towards the Tolbooth’s spire. This added a sense of mood and drama to the composition and emphasised the sunlight areas on the buildings. The figures also play an important part to this watercolour, providing movement, colour and added interest.
The Canongate Tolbooth is a highly distinctive building, and its clock if often photographed by passing tourists. As well as being an interesting and important building, the Tolbooth is a reminder that at one time the Canongate was separate from the Royal Burgh of Edinburgh. Choose your favourite Prints of Edinburgh to furnish the walls of your home or office.
The Tolbooth was built in 1591 and would have formed the local hub for the Canongate burgh, along with the nearby Mercat Cross where merchants met and conducted their business. The Tolbooth would have had many functions, serving as courthouse, burgh jail and meeting place of the town council. The building was constructed for Sir Lewis Bellenden, the justice-clerk for the burgh, and his initials can still be seen over the archway to Tolbooth Wynd.
Toolbooth Edinburgh Prints available from Alan Reed Gallery in Ponteland.
Available in larger sizes please contact
