Between Edinburgh and London there are exhibitions of two artists who had a fascination with Spain.  We are used to British artists being fascinated with Venice, but Spain too exerted an influence, which continues today.  London artist Anthony Wishaw (born 1930) was inspired by the work of Spanish artists such as Velázquez and Goya, as was Scottish artist Mary Cameron (1865-1921), born 65 years earlier before artists such as Picasso and Dali had come to prominence, whose work by coincidence is on display in the City Art Centre in Edinburgh at the same time as Wishaw’s at the Royal Academy in London.  You need to nip on the train between the two cities and see both and appreciate the different generations that the two artists represent, Anthony Wishaw being much more modern and experimental than Margaret Cameron which, in many ways, is quite traditional.

Wishaw’s work moves from the Spanish masters to his own paintings recording Spanish life as he found it, some grand like bullfights and some intimate, such contrasts being one of the joys of Spanish life even today.